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Personal Narrative: The Women's March

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When the world marched on January 21st, 2017, I stayed at home. The Women’s March was a march for issues I cared about but I couldn’t bring myself to go because I had developed a fear of speaking. It was not that I was scared to say the wrong thing but rather that I might say the right thing in a place that wasn’t mine. Born as a citizen in a country of equals, it was hard to see myself as luckier than anyone else but born as the child of an immigrant I was often told to recognize my luck and privilege.
I travelled to India at the age of 13. Walking through my family’s concrete home in a small, self-sufficient village where fresh eggs are traded for roasted peanuts and plastic waste is burned along with the rest of the garbage, I realized my …show more content…

Questions ran through my mind: Is pain absolute in its value or is there a hierarchy to it? Is my pain worthy? Are my grievances important? Can I belong among women who have been fighting for years? That evening I turned on the television and saw masses of people marching around the world. Like many others I felt hopeful and empowered, but I also felt foolish. I had regarded my privilege all wrong. The March was not about individual people or individual groups getting their messages out. It was about the unity of everyone’s battles. It was as though all the voices coalesced to say ‘there is one good- the common good’ and in their march they were not just demanding change. They were hoping that in the climax of historical struggles, others could find a beginning. I didn’t want to be lucky, I wanted to be worthy. My privilege was not simply the result of a cosmic cookie crumbling in my favour. Instead it charged me with the duty to act in a way that made me worthy. I could now feel the weight of my cousins’ lacking opportunities on me and knew I’d have to work harder and be better. The genuine joy I found in learning and having my curiosity sparked through philosophy made the weight easier to bare but it didn’t relieve me of it, nor should it have. This is my weight to carry and I intend to carry it until I’ve affected some type of meaningful change to make the world less charged with hate and

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