On my way into campus every day during the election season, I drove past a sign that read “stop bigotry and hate speech.” As I began to move forward this past November, that sign engraved itself in my mind.

Soon we will swear into office our first president who openly mocks disabled individuals and believes that sexual assault is not a big deal if you are wealthy. Soon we will bring into office someone who called their opponent a “nasty woman” because she did not agree with him.

Soon women will march on Washington D.C. to show that, no, we will not stand by and allow ourselves to be victims for the next four years. We will stand together collectively to fight for our rights, not just as women, but people of all genders, sexualities, religions and incomes.

This march embodies an intersectional decree that we will be heard, even if a Republican held Congress and newly elected president will not willingly listen to us.

We will make enough noise that they will have to take notice.

This event, which begins Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Independence Avenue and Third Street SW in downtown Washington, D.C., will serve to show the ability of thousands to come together for the greater good of the people and nation.

As of Jan. 12, on the march’s official Facebook page, over 180,000 people have stated they are definitely participating in the event, myself included.

This march will showcase what is best about the United States and what is being threatened by the conservative regime: our diversity.

Led by women of differing backgrounds, what will transpire on Jan. 21 is the brainchild of differing lifestyles that many people try to separate, and that is beautiful and powerful.

To quote Abraham Lincoln, “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” and so we will stand together in solidarity.

While the event is called the Women’s March on Washington, no requirement states participants must be women. It is completely intersectional because while this event is about feminism, it is more than that.

Women’s issues are, at the heart of it, human issues.

My 15-year-old cousin will be accompanying me to D.C., and while I am excited for her to witness and be a part of history, I am also frightened.

There are hundreds of thousands of helpful, amazing and inspiring people accompanying us on this path to history. However, I am sure that there will be many a naysayer who will throw hateful comments and possibly more at us while we fight to bring attention to what, for us, seems to be completely sane ideas such as equality for all.

It will be scary and awe-inspiring at the same time, and to think about being a true part of history is amazing.

As I prepare for my trip to Washington, I am thinking not of myself and how cool or trendy I will be for having gone, but rather about the gravity of such an enormous undertaking.

This march will go down in history just as its namesake, the march on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., did. This march will ensure that women’s issues are human issues and that love will really trump hate if we stand together and love with all that we have.

For anyone not able to get into the D.C. area, a sister march is being held in Pittsburgh also on Jan. 21, commencing at 11 a.m. with a starting point at the City-County Building on Grant Street.