National Equality March (after thoughts)

It was Amazingly Awesome and Inspiringly Informative. The whole day was just as close to perfect as I could have ever hoped, planned or even imagined-ish. The weather was really good and beautiful. Everything just came together and created the "atmosphere" I always aim to experience. The only drawback was that we got there sorta late, and a few good friends missed out. It sorta had a feel like a party or something similar to pride, yet not. For me, it was better than pride. It was pride with a purpose. Scantily clad muscle men pulling a car, and people dancing on floats have their place... but sometimes I'm always thinking of the greater purpose and the "Why". This march provided that, plus it was on Sunday.

Back to the topic at hand, the National Equality March! We planned to make a sign beforehand, tho we couldn't really think of anything tooo witty, except "GaGa for Gay Marraige". We didn't even get to do it the night before as we planned. I came up with the backup plan to get white tees, and just make them into a sign. So I wore a white tee and got a permanent marker and randomly came up with an idea for an "EQUAL" anagram. So on the metro I did that, and Freddy made his sign and it all worked out and was done by the time we got to the stop.

Being late, and stopping for food, we missed most of the pre-march get togethers and we didn't even get to march in the actual crowd. But it was still good. On the way I met John Oliver from the Daily Show and took a picture with him, and that only made my mood better. We walked the route, and found a spot on the grass way left of the stage area. Speeches were awesome and inspiring, Lady Gaga did her thing, and there were other good speakers as well. Also, when Lady Gaga was leaving in her van, we happened to be the only people near that road, so we stood and she definitely saw Freddy's sign, and waved at us. I stayed for another 1-2 hours then eventually walked back to 17th.

One good & bad thought I picked up was the fact that after Gaga finished her speech, a good amount of the crowd left. In a way, it felt like a number of people were only there to see her. At first, it was a little sad because I percieved it as people either "following the crowd" or just "doing what was popular" or "seeing a celebrity"; all of which are ranked pretty low in my book. Later I realized that even if they were there just for her, they still showed up and they did hear other people talk as well. So they might have been gotten something else out of it too. Not to mention, they might have already been out standing/walking for 4-6 hours.

The entire experience gave me what I wanted in terms of an activity to do. It had meaning and a purpose, and just wasn't a waste of time. I got to hang with friends, see some old faces and get to know some new-ish people better. I also had a creative idea and actually put it into action. It sorta sucked that some friends didn't make it out. But I did what I could to try and motivate them, because I know they would have done the same for me. This experience was awesome in a very personal way. I made it my own and returned home informed, inspired and challenged me to be...