I felt a mix of emotions when I heard how many women (and men) marched to defend their rights throughout many cities across our country. As a woman, I felt inspired by the millions of people coming together to shed some light on the importance of our equality as human beings. It makes perfect, simple sense that I should be supporting those women and my equality, right? Maybe. I thought the key word of equality is what everyone that chose to attend was marching for. I was quite frankly saddened to see some of the behavior that I did during these marches. I saw some acting with the same hate in which they were claiming to stand against. That just did not make any sense to me. As a young woman with a mind that is still learning to shape herself, I was confused in what I was supposed to believe in while watching this march.

Initially, I did not want to support this Women's March. I did not want to support the hatred of men and some of the violence that occurred during this movement. However, once I started asking other women why the chose to participate in the march and started to better understand these different perspectives, the more I supported it. I would never want to be a person who painted all of the participants with the same brush because everyone that marched did so for their own reasons. Also, not everyone who marched did it with violent intentions. So for those of you that keep criticizing the women that were there for the best, most peaceful reasons, cut it out. Every single person has the right to believe in what they do and stand up for it. Further more, we as women have that right in this country when so many other women in other countries may not have that freedom.

The Women's March got me to truly think about my rights and wonder why those rights have been violated. I can absolutely understand the fear and apprehension that has come with our new president of the United States. In my opinion, there was no security and faith that came from Mr. Trump for women during his campaigning. However, to those women that were giving speeches on how women are under attack left me puzzled. Which women's rights have been violated by our new president? Maybe I am misinformed, but I haven't seen anything been taken away from us. Like I said before, I completely understand the message that many women are sending to Mr. Trump based off of his actions, but aren't we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves? Why are we allowing this to affect us and our decisions? If you are a woman that is passionate about your rights, don't let anyone tell you otherwise and choose not to let it affect you.

Now, with all of this being said, I finally understand what I want my message to other women to be and I want it to be clear: we as women have every right to protect and defend our beliefs, our ideas, and our bodies. Please remember that men have those exact same rights. We as individuals have every right to protect and defend our beliefs, our ideas, and our bodies. When you start to realize that it all starts with taking people on an individual basis, that is where the respect and equality begins.

Please remember the importance of why you chose to march, or why you supported the Women's March. Don't ever be discouraged to share why you participated because your words matter. If you were there just blindly following the crowd, please remember that it is not beneficial to just blindly follow anything. I support everyone who was there with a good purpose and that is all.

I will leave you with just one last thought: instead of limiting this fight to just one day in one big march, why don't we fight for our rights every single day? Why are we not questioning those reality shows whose premise flies in the face of feminism and equality that sets us back even further? Why are we not protesting those women who enjoy tearing other women down? I want each and every one of us to focus on lifting each other up on a daily basis. I want all of us to question what we want feminism to look like and what we actually stand for. Whether this is a man supporting a woman, women supporting women or even a woman supporting a man, do this with a purpose. What an amazing world we would live in if we could just remember that.