When I was in high school, I majored in English and politics. It was election season in the U.S. and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were fighting for the Democratic ticket.

We analyzed a lot of speeches, strategies, behaviors and outcomes. I was so fascinated by the emotionality of it. I think I speak for everyone in my class back then, when I say that it felt over-the-top and unrealistic.

At the end, Obama became the first African-American president and thousands of miles away in Germany, we were watching people crying hysterically about it. That’s a lot to handle for Germans.

Eight years later, I feel different. The campaigning was so intense, that it even felt too real to handle. I’m not a citizen, I don’t have any personal connection to this country, but I was completely captivated by it. The times I got angry or happy, the times I judged policy promises or reacted with a certain amount of arrogance toward candidates’ world views, are countless.

On top of that, the election was part of almost every aspect of my daily life. News networks were almost forgetting about every other major event in the world and were rather focusing on what to call Bill Clinton, if Hillary became president. I wonder, how many people noticed, that the U.S. started direct military attacks in Yemen during that time?

Every kitchen talk with my housemates started with the phrase “I can’t believe what he or she did today…” Every professor of every class had a funny comment about the election to start the class with. At least they thought it was funny. There was such an overdose of election related information and commentaries, that at some point I realized how hard it would have been, if this was my country.

No matter how intense it was for me, it must have felt even more intense for citizens who really care about their country’s future. I imagine that the perceived responsibility rose with every election report on TV, every new poll number, bumper stickers, late-night talk show host’s monologues and even with Clinton or Trump Halloween costumes.

Yes, some of it is meant to be entertainment and I am aware of the fact that many instances profit from it. However, after a certain degree I wonder when and where it would get too far. President Obama was so engaged in campaigning for Hillary Clinton that I always wondered whether he thought about the possibility of Trump winning. Apparently not.

At some point his rhetoric was no different than Stephen Colbert’s or Jimmy Kimmel’s. That’s a sign. Because now Obama had to shake hands with him in the Oval Office, presenting a serious tableau of two opponents, who mocked each other in so many different ways in the past, but can come together for a “peaceful transition.” And everyone has to buy that?

How can politicians expect the people of this country to believe in and support its institutions, when campaigning gets to a point that makes the outcome difficult to watch on TV? It is accurately titled as an “awkward moment,” as Obama and Trump were posing for journalists, but it is also sad to say that about the president and his successor’s first meeting.

If this makes me as a foreigner pensive and emotional, it’s probably too much. A “peaceful transition of power” is not the only thing politicians should focus on. People of this country deserve politicians who fight for their cause without making the widely unpredicted outcome literally unbelievable.

Germany has had a woman head of government since 2005 and I have not seen anyone cry about that. At least not for positive reasons. Maybe German voters are unemotional, maybe we do not get enthusiastic when we read “stronger together” or “make America great again,” maybe the political necessity of building coalitions does not make us go too far. There is no way of knowing.

I wish that politicians would realize that emotionalizing politics can be as dangerous as it can be helpful for their cause. People’s opinions on policies can change over time, but strong emotional attachment to politicians — ecstatic happiness or dramatic display of disappointment toward hard-fought campaigns — can leave their mark for a long time.

M. Selim Yilmaz is a German exchange student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is a master’s degree candidate in political science and public administration at the University of Konstanz.