A Day With a Presidential Candidate

On a normal, yet rather windy, Tuesday in North Carolina, Donald Trump held a rally at High Point University. It was announced about five days before and for five straight days people obsessed over it. Some were more than happy and even skipped class to see him. Others were outraged and held on campus protests. Then there were people like me who do not understand politics, did not want anything bad to happen, and just observed.

The morning of the rally, people were lined up at the door way before I even had class. They were supposed to let people in at 10 am but they ended up letting people in around 8:30 am. And the rally did not even start until noon. I had class until 11:40 am so there was no way I was going to get in. When I was walking to class, about an hour after doors opened, there were a lot of people around campus so I figured that most kids were going to class. However, as I approached the science building, there was silence. No one was around. In my class, that usually has about forty kids in it, had only about fifteen girls. There was only one guy who showed up. Class seemed to drag on and I was constantly checking snapchat to see what was going on near the rally. After class, it was even more quiet near the academic buildings.

As I approached Wanek, there was a protest around one of the fountains. It is in the first amendment that they had a right to protest. Since HPU is a private university, there are special rules though. They could not openly protest where they wanted. However, they all followed the rules and nothing was violent. It was not what I expected though. There was no picket signs or marching. The protesters were sitting and took turns sharing why they were against Trump and what they enjoyed in the Democratic Party.

I stood along the security fence to the rally and watched Trump drive in. He arrived about twenty-five minutes after the rally was supposed to begin. I heard he showed up to the rally and spoke about terrorism for about twenty minutes. Some people enjoyed it, some hated it, and some were just bored.

I am just glad nothing caught on fire.