This weekend I attended the March For Life in Washington DC. It was truly a pilgrimage because we spent over 24 hours on a bus on the way out and on the way back. I initially signed up for the March because my friends were going. I still believe that this is a valid reason because I have discovered so many times the beauty of companionship and my need to share life with others. However, as the March approached and the whole time I was in DC I felt like I needed to verify for myself the value of marching for life. If I was just on the trip to hang out with my friends, I could have done that anywhere else and saved myself a lot of money and time by not going out to D.C. Why was I there then? We were encouraged as pilgrims to share our experience on social media with the hashtag #WhyWeMarch. I left D.C. And returned home with this question of "why did I march?" still in my mind.

As I was struggling to be aware of what I had experienced over the weekend, I discovered that the only thing that I had felt moved by was the companionship on the bus rides. I've told many people since I've been home that for me the bus rides were more fun than being in D.C. actually was. Normally, I wouldn't think that spending 24 hours straight cooped up on a bus (including sleeping on said bus) would be much fun. Instead what I found was an incredibly profound experience of sharing life in a very raw way. So many of my good friends were with me, in addition with some new friends I met on the bus. We had a sleepover on the bus all together, we played card games, we told jokes, we listened to music, we sang, and more. We laughed together and we grew tired, dirty, and stinky together without showers. I can't describe the joy I felt except to share that I wanted the bus rides to last forever.

I was also able to attend the New York Encounter two weeks before the March and in a way the March helped me to understand the theme of the Encounter better. The first line of the theme states, "We all have the intuition that life, despite all its hardships, is fundamentally food." This experience on the bus reminded me of the positivity of life and reality. One of the other students from Sioux Falls on the March shared on social media, "I marched for all the unborn that were never given a chance to see this beautiful world that we live in." When I read that I realized that THIS is why I marched. I realized that in a way the companionship that I had experienced was why I marched! My experience has made me certain of the beauty and positivity that life holds for all. I believe that everybody deserves a chance to experience this beauty. I desire this for everybody. And that is #WhyIMarch