Jo and I are right in the middle of training a group of nurses to be Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners. This morning is day three of five. It’s a long week, and a tough week, and waking up this morning made it even harder. So here’s what I told them before we got started:

* * * * * *

I’m not going to ask anyone how they voted. There are many things about our country that continue to disappoint us, but the fact that we can vote our own conscience in privacy, without intimidation, is something we should continue protect and admire.

We’ve been through this before. I remember that Wednesday morning eight years ago, that was the third-most-hungover I’ve ever been in my life. Today isn’t on that scale, but it’s probably in the top twenty. But aside from my maladaptive coping skills, I remember that Wednesday morning.

I’m sad and tired that I have to have a second Wednesday in my life.

So what are the things that give me hope, things that give me something to hold on to as we enter Round Two. i’m going to tell you the truth — it’s every single one of you in this class today.

Every single one of you is here by choice. Every single one of you is here because you truly, deeply, genuinely give a shit for other human beings, and especially for those small human beings that depend on the big ones to love them, raise them, and protect them from harm.

What give me strength is knowing that I’m sending you back to all different corners of this beautiful, sometimes broken state, and when you’re there you’ll be using what you learned to care for someone who, in the darkest moment of their life, needed you desperately.

Through your work, you’ll be reassuring a survivor that they will not be forced to carry their rapists baby to term. Through your work, you’ll be reassuring a child that fractures knit, and bruises fade, and that they will, in fact, be OK. Through your work, you’re demonstrating that compassion is the path along which humanity is truly found.

And through your work as a Forensic Nurse, you are, even this very minute, already starting the fight of the next four years. And if you are too tired, too broken, too heartsick to do any more, know that I see you – I SEE you – and by this work you are already doing enough. You are already in the fight.

But if you find that you can rest and grieve and rebuild some of that energy in the next few months, let me know, and I’ll see you ringside on January 20th, when the bell rings for Round Two. And we’ll be ready. And we’ll get to work.