LITERARY: "This Time, Curiosity Saves" by: Jasmine Fiona Sanchez

See, here is the thing when you wake up with posters fastened on the posts surrounding you, when you wake up to the song of a campaign jingle on the television in an early morning; you realize that elections are sooner than expected, that they are closer than they seem.

The catch is, they actually aren't. These people are just early when it comes to campaigning in what they believe in.

It can almost pass off as a routine, a pattern of your daily life. The alarm isn't what wipes the sleep off your mind, but it's the catchy song you hear playing on the television every morning because your mother can't seem to figure out how to turn the volume down. And you get used to it, little by little, that somewhere along the line, you find yourself singing this song in the shower.

Curiosity is what kills the cat, as many of them say.

You search up this candidate, with the appealing tune, with their faces displayed all over the streets. And well, to say that you're disappointed would be an understatement.

You don't know why your hands are shaking. You can't decipher why your heart is beating a little too fast. You can't tell why you're suddenly being overcome with anger, why rage is filling your veins, because you're not that type; you aren't the type to get furious over other people's business. And you never will be.

It's not the early campaigning that throws you off, no. It can't compare to the offenses –– to the vile, vile doings of this person. And you think about your country, your school, your family and how voting for this person can affect you, how their jingle can be catchy despite their wrongdoings, how they'll be more known than the candidates who deserve this spot just because they've prepared their campaign a little earlier than others.

It's unfair, really, to see this horrible person be celebrated and recognized in the likes of social media. It's unfair, how much advantage so little time can give, and how a week of campaign can make a big difference in terms of results. It's unfair how some people want to serve the country truly and wholeheartedly, but they can't. Because they can't win against these early campaigners, because they don't have the budget to make themselves known on television. It's all so dishonest that it leaves a sour taste on your tongue, that it makes your stomach churn, that it makes you feel sick.

You're frustrated that you can't do anything, of course. You want to be big, as enormous as a whole planet, just so people can listen, just so people can hear what you want to say. But the feeling of helplessness doesn't leave you. This is what it means to be living in a universe so vast. This is what it means to be small.

This is what it means to be cheated on.