To My Future Daughter,

Lovely. I hope you never know what it's like to feel alienated or judged or hated for being who you are. I hope you never know what it's like to be scared walking home late at night, or what it's like to be unable to love who you want to love. I fought for you that day. When I was only a freshman in college, I made my way and marched with hundreds of thousands of women in unity.

We marched not only for the rights of women but the rights of the LGBT+ community, people of color, immigrants, and disabled individuals. Marching beside me was a sea mixture of love and kindness and sisterhood. From the very day we learned of our next president-elect, we held hands in solidarity and peace. Peace, love, and joy were the words thousands of women chanted across the country and even the world. An estimated 2.3 Million people marched on that day, making it the biggest march in world history. I didn't know what would happen in the next four years, I didn't know what the future would hold for me, but what I did know was that I didn't have to go through it alone.

I want you to remember that no matter how scared you are, no matter how strong or powerful a bully may be, you can always fight by standing with the friends around you. Together in unity is how you fight. You scream with words of love and not hate, with passion and not fear, with hope and not pain. Never forget that you are why I marched that day. So that you can look into the mirror with only love for yourself. So that you can hug your own body with the knowledge of it being your own and no one else's. So that you wouldn't let somebody's negative ideas of you become the precursor to your own relationship with yourself. I'm not saying I did a lot that day, but I am saying that we--together did a very beautiful thing.

-Love, Mom