On January 21, 2017, I participated in an incredible movement that swept the nation and every continent, even Antarctica! If you don't know what I'm talking about, it was the Women's March. The march was held in response to the inequalities that women have suffered for countless generations. I was able to attend the march at its epicenter, Washington, D.C. 

Luckily for my group, we had friends in DC and were able to get to the March early from their house. Going into it I was very excited and nervous. That feeling of butterflies vanished when we met our first fellow Marcher only five minutes after leaving the house. When we got on the Metro, there was only one person that I saw not wearing a pink hat or carrying a sign. The most surreal moment of the trip was when we got off the train and could not move because the platform was too full. My group stopped; we were completely dumbfounded. A whooping cheer could be heard from far away and, like ripples on a pond, it gradually made its way to where we were and kept going. It would get louder and everyone would be cheering and pumping their signs in the air. We were still just in the underground subway station.

Subway Station

We met up with a large group of people, some of whom were from my aunt’s church, around 9:00 A.M. When we met up with them, the entire group was singing and waving signs that urged for change without violence. This was another surreal moment for me because I realized that although the signs showed that everyone there was angry, the attitude of the crowd felt very joyful. It felt like a festival of sorts, with everyone cheering, singing, or chanting.

Images from the march 

At 10:00 A.M., we walked a couple short blocks to Independence Avenue, where we could see the live video of the rally on a big screen. We listened to the speakers at the rally for two hours. We got to hear America Ferrera, Gloria Steinem, and Michael Moore give their speeches. The rally was supposed to end at 1:15, but we were still stuck on Independence Avenue at 3:30. My group decided to leave around that time. Some people were saying that the actual March to the White House was canceled, due to the fact that the crowd stretched the entirety of the area we were supposed to be marching. When we got back to the train we realized that they did continue the March, but we were so tired that we decided to leave anyway. Back at the house, we turned on the TV to see what was going on at the March. Although we could tell the crowd had been huge, this was the first we saw an aerial shot of it. Yet again we freaked out. We hadn't realized how far the crowd stretched or how many other marches were happening around the world. We were amazed when we realized that what we had been a small part of what was much bigger than anyone had expected.

The thing that I wish everyone knew about the March is that, yes, it was an angry crowd of people, but it was a very hopeful and cheery crowd of angry people. People there weren't just standing up for women's rights. The larger message was the unity between people of all sexual orientations, abilities, races, and religions. The movement isn't going to use force or violence to get people to listen, but it is going to be heard.