Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.

“This is just a chapter, not the entire book,” I told my wife upon reflecting on the 2016 presidential election. I’m the husband of a woman eagerly looking forward to becoming an American citizen who suddenly wonders if half of the country even wants her. It is that feeling, the feeling of being wanted, that so many in our country are questioning. This election was so often not about policy, but instead about people.

Whereas most elections are hopefully about policy — what presidential candidates hope to enact, much of our president-elect’s rhetoric was about the characters he decided to prop up. Mexican rapists. Muslim terrorists. Inner city blacks. The list goes on. In the story of Donald Trump’s election, these characters were always the problem. Identifying the problem was all the American people needed to elect him. Solutions were a bonus, and often far-fetched.

To be honest, I’m not that interested in the story of Donald Trump’s election. It’s a mere chapter, albeit a riveting one, in the narrative of my nation. There are far more important characters than Trump, and the characters he decided to use are far more dimensional than he or his supporters care to believe. This chapter is the one of shock and awe, the one that left me and many others with a pit in their stomach. There’s a sense of breathlessness, wondering when that first gasp of air will provide relief. It’s the one that leaves so many of us afraid to continue reading because there just may be greater loss to come.

Loss will come. It would come no matter who is elected president, though likely in different ways. Future chapters in our story will reveal deeper loss than can be realized today or on any specific day. Some of it is political, and some of it is inevitable. People could lose their health insurance — and in turn their lives. Families could be torn apart. Discrimination could become more acceptable. A nation is redefining itself, and the story is unfolding as the words are written. That’s the story we elected to write earlier this week.

When we live life only in the current chapter, we forget about the great progress that has come before us. President Lincoln ended slavery with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Women won the right to vote in 1920. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Interracial marriage was made legal across the country in 1967. America has a well-documented history of progress. Our story is progressive.

A new chapter begins as we transition into the Trump presidency. As a nation, we are currently wondering what our president-elect will actually prioritize from a campaign of half-truths and polarization. Will he truly try to unite the country in a time where he so divisively separated us? I hope he surrounds himself with people that will help make that effort a success.

Thankfully, no president is writing the story of our nation alone. Not even the entirety of our elected officials are composing our narrative. The American people are writing it.

We write the story of our country together, no matter who is at the helm. That story isn’t written in one night in early November. It isn’t written on inauguration day in January. It isn’t written in four years of Trump’s presidency. It is written in the daily choices we make to lift each other up as we work to improve our country together.

The election didn’t allow us to choose a candidate where we would all be lifted up, but we can still do that on our own. Whether you’re a black woman living in Trump’s “inner cities” or a white man living in rural America, we need each other to succeed. We can find hope and strength from within. Let’s start writing that story. You’re responsible for it, and so am I. Let our words and actions be truthful, but not divisive. Let us strive for deeper understanding of one another. Let us listen when someone expresses fear. Let us comfort when someone experiences loss. This is the story we can write, but we must actively write it. Passivity isn’t written into the story of progress.

The history of the book of America is in your favor. Grab the pen and write the next chapter with me.