"Part of something bigger."

This is the third post in a series of student testimonies following SFLI’s participation in the 2016 March for Life Chicago.Anne, President of Illinois Tech Students for Life, shares her story here:When I got to the Federal Plaza for the March for Life Chicago, we were about half an hour early, so there only appeared to be a few hundred people. The part of our group stretched out near the road seemed to be about even numbers with the women’s rights protesters across the street. If not a larger crowd, those across the street were certainly louder. I’ll admit I was disheartened. I was sure that the cold had scared most people away. It was, after all, at most 1°F. But despite this, I remained outwardly light-hearted for the students around me.I tried to keep their spirits up by singing, jumping, and dancing - partly to keep my toes from going numb. I was so focused on them that I barely noticed the people streaming in from all sides until I was completely surrounded. By 2pm, I found myself in the middle of a huge crowd. With the music and dancing and rally chants, we had become quite the rowdy group.And yet, one of the most impactful moments didn’t involve any of the noise. In fact, it was the moment of silence when the entire crowd bowed our heads in solemn respect for those who could not be with us.In that moment, I heard the cries of a quarter of my generation who were not given the chance to be loved. I heard the sobbing of post-abortive women who are told that it is not logical to grieve or to love “a clump of cells”. And I heard the voices of men wondering if maybe, just maybe, fear had kept them from loving their children and their girlfriends or wives more than themselves. To me, that silence was louder than any chanting and singing and shouting during the rest of the March.Once the March began, I managed to get stuck in the back where it was relatively quiet once more. Again, I wondered how small the group really was. Little did I know that the quiet was another testimony to the size of our presence: we were so far back that we couldn’t hear the marching band.We didn’t even know there was a marching band! When we finally arrived back at the Federal Plaza, I had the opportunity to join the dance party on the stage.Despite my hesitation, I climbed on stage and, finally above the crowd, I was greeted by the sight of over 5,000 pro-lifers. They were singing and dancing and smiling – they were hopeful. During the March, I was only able to see as far as the people close to me; how did I forget that I was part of something bigger?While we are in the fight for life on campus and in our communities, we might only see that small impact around us, but we must never forget that we are part of something bigger.Continuing to mentor Anne, we are grateful for her paving the way for a culture of life!