Happy International Women’s Day!

For my part in this celebration, I’d like to address the big issue of feminism and the people who are just so proud to not be one.

This piece is not only a response to another Odyssey writer’s article that popped up on my Facebook feed but also to celebrate the women and girls across the world and people that support their causes.

Ahem.

I hear you and acknowledge that this choice is yours and yours alone.

Just as it is your choice to believe that people are simply "hopping on the rapidly growing bandwagon where all the hipsters, feminists and Trump haters reside."

It may seem to you like the new and shiny trend that will fall apart with due time, but this is something that has been going on for centuries and should not be so narrowly defined.

Feminists have been on this “bandwagon” since day one and we will continue to do until it fills up and splinters apart beneath us.

And when it does, we will simply continue to march forward past the remains of your sad and limp definition of our cause and rise up.

Don't you dare to presume that all feminists are the same.

And please don't make a fool of yourself assuming that feminists are simply all man-haters or flashers to piss off passers-by on the street because you know what they say about assumptions.

I hopped on this “bandwagon” as soon as my mother brought me into this world.

If not at the moment, then it was the first time anyone told me that “girls can’t ” or “boys don’t-”.

If not at that time, then whenever someone presumes to tell me that I am not allowed to control my own body and attempt to control it themselves, whether by force or with catcalls or telling me to "smile."

At 20 years old, I hope I’ve cultivated my understanding of feminism greatly since then.

Please don’t dare to again assume that people are locked into set roles and qualities by the letters that make up their chromosomes.

Science is meant to be a solution, not a cage.

Anyone that has studied it knows that our knowledge must constantly be researched over and over again, that it isn’t permanent and to claim such a thing is to be a fool.

For me, gender is not set in stone like your mind has decided, it is a performance of a person's identity, an expression of the truest self that they are aware of and which they present to the world around them.

You may claim to rather die than associate yourself with such a word like “feminist,” but for me, that word and my life are intertwined too much to be split apart and treated as one or the other.

I'm not going to tell you what a feminist is or isn’t as you are the only person that defines your feminism for yourself (but I also won’t hesitate to heavily suggest that your feminism should include intersectionality).

I want to use these finals lines to celebrate the people that made me proud to be a feminist as well as those who made sure I could not live in peace without it.

I am a feminist because of all the people, not just men, that believe we are simply man-haters or disruptions, or any synonymous reason that ends with us is seen as wrong.

I am a feminist because my mother taught me three important lessons that will never leave me: that God is love, that my family is everything, and that I must be independent and believe in myself.

I believe in being a feminist because people deserve the right to be treated as human beings with their own pains and triumphs and not judged on whatever is between their legs.

I am a feminist for all the boys and men that believe their identity can only be assured in they cause harm to others and deny themselves their own humanity.

For all the boys that can't pursue their dreams because it will somehow make them less, or even worse make them like a girl.

I am a feminist because centuries ago people believed they could own other humans and we are still struggling and fighting against that belief today.

Because I used to wish I was lighter skinned, my hair straighter, and my name was less difficult and prettier and white.

Because yes, I will bring race into this, how dare you think that I would not, and yes it will continue to matter until that glorious day comes when we will not have to defend the melanin in our skin as monstrous and "other."

Because they still have not brought our girls home and hashtags can only do so much.

I am a feminist because of my friends who fight against religious intolerance and racial slurs, eating disorders and mental health issues.

Because of my friends that put up with sexual assault and relationships, holding down multiple jobs and in spite of these struggles, are still getting those grades and shooting for the top honors and their degrees or promotions.

I am a feminist because these exceptional people still blaze brightly in the face of everything the world throws at them and I aspire to be even a fraction as brilliant as they are and I am so proud of them.

I am a feminist because of Katherine Johnson, Malala Yousafzai, Marie Curie, Rosa Parks, Rosalind Franklin, Ahed Tamimi, Sappho, Sojourner Truth, Coco Chanel, Ada Lovelace, Wangari Maathai, and so many other amazing women and girls that have made or have yet to make history, and to them I also give my thanks.