Students Reflect: Joey Wong on the March for Our Lives
Joey Wong ’21, Finance
The march was absolutely hectic, but in a good way. The buses/group I was meeting were located in Staten Island. I was traveling with my girlfriend and friend from back home. We had missed the ferry we aimed to catch by 3 minutes, and had to wait 30 minutes for the next. We eventually made it to Staten Island, coming to the rally late, but thankfully not missing the buses. Standing in the shivering cold, I stood with a group of people that were holding pictures of the 17 victims. They were reading short biographies on the victims (I wrote the biographies two days prior). We eventually boarded the buses, and went off to DC at around 6am.
My bus/group had arrived by the time my friends from Florida, who were there the day before, were already marching. Once everyone got off the bus, my girlfriend, friend, and I basically separated from the group. We walked away from the stadium which all the buses were pulling up to and took a Lyft to the National Mall. We started walking towards the main stage, where there were many people, protest signs, and chanting. It was such a spectacular sight to see. There were so many people supporting this cause, and this was just D.C. alone. The entire time, I thought the march would be by the reflecting lake and Lincoln Memorial, so when I got there, I was a bit surprised to see that it was on the road that lead to the Capitol. While in the crowd, watching the march, I didn’t think about anything other than, “I hope this goes well. I hope nothing bad happens.” Luckily, nothing bad did happen and the march ended successfully.
Saturday, March 24th was an extremely tiring day – I think everyone can agree on this. However, it’s a day that will never be forgotten, and that’s what matters. While we still have a very long road ahead of us, I do think that we, people in support of gun control, are closer than ever to achieving our goal.
