So much has happened for women since the first Women’s March that took place in January of last year. There have been concerns over discontinuing government funding of Planned Parenthood, everything going on with the #MeToo movement in Hollywood and the business scene everywhere, and not to mention the President of the United States and his actions (past and present) contributing to the war on women. So many women have started using their voice for the betterment and equality of women everywhere, and it’s important for us to stand in solidarity with those who have been brave and started us on this path. We owe it to ourselves and to all of them to keep this movement toward progress going.
For all of the reasons above, I am one of the people who plan on going to this year’s Women’s March on January 20th. And yes, I know that making a point of going to this year’s Women’s March means that I didn’t go to last year’s march. I can’t go back and change that, so I’m trying to live in the now and seize the new opportunities as they present themselves. It’s not that I purposely didn’t go to last year’s Women’s March. I didn’t all of a sudden start to care about the equal treatment of women in society, or anything like that, I think it’s an issue that many of us have cared about for a long time now. It was more of a lack of general knowledge of the enormity of women’s frustration with the patriarchy that was actually being voiced, and being heard in the public. I also admit to being quite out of the loop with all of the negative news after the 2016 election. Opening my phone up to the news segments always made my heart sink. Because of this I stopped reading the news and scrolling through my Twitter feed. This unawareness of what was happening caused me to be completely oblivious to what was going on in the world, including the Women’s March.
What did I really do on the Saturday of the Women’s March last year? My roommate and I woke up to our friends knocking on our door telling us to get ready for the Men’s basketball game, and then went to wait in line for about four hours. Long story short, we didn’t get in. We ended up going to Rocco’s and watched a pretty lame game on a TV screen surrounded by loud and drunk people. My roommate opened up Twitter at the table and told us that there was a Women’s March going on in Washington DC that morning. And then she kept scrolling and found out that it was no longer just DC, but also Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento. And then that they were also happening in Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida Hawaii, Georgia, and many, many more states all over the country. That people were protesting in Argentina, Belgium, Finland, Columbia, India, Greece— so many countries all over the world. They all came together across the globe to stand up for what they believed in, for equality, basic human rights, the promise to support each other until every nation’s people are treated the way they should be. And there I was sitting in a bar, surrounded by people whose main focus was a ball bouncing down the court.
I sat there at a barstool in Rocco’s and decided that I would never be out of the news loop again. It’s more important to know what is happening in the world than pretend to live in blissful ignorance. I don’t plan on missing out on a chance to use my voice ever again, or not to be mentally and physically present for what I believe in. I knew exactly where I would be standing in the January of the next year to come. I would be walking with the women around me, ones I know and ones I don’t, being active in a cause that I believe in, that affects me and all of those around me. Women have had one hell of a year, but, honestly, when do we not? This year brought out events that were groundbreaking and hard to hear, good and bad, happy and sad, and any other polar opposite combination you can think of. You know what they are. You’ve read about them in the news, seen them on the TV and probably have had several conversations and family arguments about them by now. That’s why I walk (and it’s also the reason why I know there is a walk)! I’m walking for myself, I’m walking for women and I’m walking with anyone who stands in solidarity with us. Hopefully I will see you there, I’ll be the one empowering women!
Photos courtesy of Flickr