On January 21, 2017 hundreds of thousands of women gathered all over the United States to march for women’s rights. I got the privilege of attending the one in NY which was amazing. It was so great to see that so many people support women’s rights and are willing to take time out of their day to march for them. I was only there for a few hours, but it felt so empowering and inspiring to be a part of a movement like this. Going on this march had a very positive impact on me. It made me feel so happy to be a part of a movement that was advocating for something I truly believe it. It also felt good to be making change and leaving my mark on the world. Being a part of this made me realize that when one person does or says something, it’s like a ripple effect, everyone else does it.

It was also a lot of fun being a part of this march. Even though there were thousands of people and we moved about a half a block in 2 hours, it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people with great, clever signs and I got to meet people who had personal stories of their own as to why they were marching today. I met this one woman named Anna-Marie who was born in France. When she was 18 she went on a trip to Uganda with some friends to help out kids. She said it was an amazing experience. But while she was there, she met a girl named Jasmine, who she really fell in love with. Then Anna-Marie learned that Jasmine had to give birth because she was the victim of rape, but didn’t have access to clinics so therefore wasn’t able to get an abortion. When Anna-Marie told me this, I felt so sad for Jasmine, but also it made me feel even more lucky to live in a state where abortion is legal and I do have access to doctors and clinics. Unfortunately, Jasmine’s stories are not rare. There a lot of women and girls who are raped and are forced to give birth because they either 1) don’t have access to care 2) their parents are religious and they see abortion as murder.

Being a part of this movement was amazing, inspiring, fun, and so much more. I feel very proud to have been a part of this. I don’t think I would trade this experience for anything. Women’s rights are human rights!