My candidate lost in the first election I voted in. But I’m OK with that.

After twenty years in America, this was the first election that I voted in. In fact, I became a citizen specifically to vote in this election. My candidate lost. That bums me out. I genuinely believe that President Hillary would have been far better than President Trump. But that isn’t the world that we live in, so we have to move on.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media talking about emigrating to Canada. About California seceding from the US. I am still an Australian citizen, so I actually have that option. But I’m staying right here.

I became a citizen recently, but I have believed in America for a long time. I believe that this is the greatest country in the world. It is an exemplar of freedom and democracy. It is a place where anyone can rise.

But America is a nation that is more than merely a reflection of its people, or of its current leadership. It is a nation of laws. The constitution and the checks and balances represented by the legislative and judicial branches will keep this country a place that I want to live.

Many people have been quoting Martin Luther King in the last 12 hours

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

America voted yesterday and gave Donald Trump a mandate to govern. He gave voice to many who feel disenfranchised and left behind by change. They have a right to be heard as well. I disagree with their solutions, but I understand their frustration.

So life will go on. The tech world’s sound and fury will abate as we all get on with our lives and our work. The micro always trumps (too soon?) the macro. The idea and the team are always more important than the economy or the unemployment rate or the trade deficit in determining a startups success. The startup world will recover and thrive, just as it did after the bubble burst in 2000 and after the global financial crisis of 2008. The nation will recover and thrive.

I don’t typically write about politics. I write about tech. But as I ended my first post about this election, I’ll end my last. I am proud and excited to have cast my first vote in a U.S. election. The first of many.