This village that we live in of barely a thousand people is incredibly small, so heading to the U.S. Supreme Court for a march with over half a million people was a bit nerve-wracking. But there I was looking out my hotel room window, and I already saw hundreds of people walking toward the Washington Monument where over half a million people gathered to protest in the March for Life. Our little contingent, the Stockbridge chapter of Students for Life (SFL) group grabbed our posters and headed out to march in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

We stood against abortion.

As a small group from a small town, heading out to protest at a national level was a large step for us.

The goal of the protest was to ban abortions after 20 weeks of a baby’s development. The crowd assembled seemed enormous. Protesters were spilling from the streets and into the sidewalks as we shifted from the Washington Monument to Capitol Hill.

Youth groups, various schools and other pro-life groups came from all over the world; even a group from the Netherlands was there protesting in kilts and blowing bagpipes. Taking baby steps toward the U.S. Capitol made what would seem to be a quick 15 minute walk into almost a three-hour experience of joy, singing and laughter.

Police blocked all the intersections, so we could respectfully pass through during our peaceful protest. Surprisingly, none of us had a negative encounter with a police officer or civilian.

In every protest I have participated, there has been negative feedback, but this time was different. It felt like my country was on my side.

As teens, we tend to exhaust our breath on drama and petty scandals. Let’s take the breath that is given to us and use it to speak up and speak out on issues we all believe in. Creating a group about such a sensitive topic in school has allowed SFL to be an example for others to create student led groups of their own.

We find it easy to brush sensitive topics under the rug in fear of judgment and ridicule, but I am saying it is okay to speak up no matter the issue. I am a 16-year-old high school student who held a poster in the air, shoulder-to-shoulder, with hundreds of thousands of people to say what I wanted to say. Though I didn’t change laws, I grabbed the entire world’s attention about something serious.