Reflecting on Donald Trump in St. Louis

St. Louis is in my DNA. It is where I was born, where I was raised, and where I call home. While I have always loved St. Louis, in recent years I have grown to appreciate the city even more. My time at St. Louis University High School is largely responsible for this. Being a part of a more expansive group of classmates helping me to see St. Louis in different ways. Learning how to drive and commuting each morning gave me a greater appreciation for every building and street. Most importantly, the SLUH Staycation Club helped me to appreciate every aspect of my hometown on a level that I had never imagined before. Even though I find myself away from St. Louis more often these days due to school, the city remains on my mind and in my heart everyday.

A photo from the wall of my dorm room in Chicago of myself and the SLUH Staycation Club on one of our first outings in Downtown St. Louis

Today Donald Trump spoke in the Peabody Opera House. The Peabody is a 3,100 seat theater that opened in 1934. It is a beautiful theater that has played host to a wide variety of events from concerts to musicals to my very own high school graduation. It is that graduation that makes Trump's rally more appalling than usual to me. I will forever associate the Peabody Opera House with SLUH and fond memories. I will remember taking picture with all my friends, greeting family members, not climbing on the bears with Connor, no one obnoxiously cheering when my name was called, the awkward expressions on everyone's faces when the Battle Hymn of the Republic was being played, laying eyes on my diploma for the first time, listening to speeches, reflecting on the past four years of my life, the huge Billiken on the ceiling, processing in, talking with my teachers, making side comments to Hap, looking really fancy, flipping through the program a bunch, waiting in the back, and wrapping up many years with Michael as a classmate.

Another photo from my dorm room wall. This one is from my graduation at the Peabody Opera House.

And now Trump. Trump is there. The same place where all those memories took place. The same place where I felt so much joy now plays host to anger, hatred, conflict, and violence. It sickens me. All of those happy memories and an abomination. Trump has infiltrated what I hold dear. He brought the worst our country has to offer together in a place, a city that I associate with the best of memories. He promoted hatred and discrimination on the same stage where I proudly concluded four amazing years of my life. He brought the city's worst to the place I associate with the city's best.

St. Louis is bigger than Trump. St. Louis is better than Trump. St. Louis is beautiful.

Mr. Trump, get out of my city, get out of my home, get out of my country.