Trump’s first year in office entailed discriminatory travel bans, environmental crises, Nazi rallies, nuclear threats, lies and dreams dissolving into dust. As the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration came around, my girlfriends and I took to the streets in the 2018 Women’s March to express our disgust and frustration over the Trump and GOP administration’s actions, and not let these actions slide idly by.

The girls gathered at my house the night before the march, equipped with paint, posters and good tunes: we were prepared to perfect our signs of resistance. As my friends chatted about female empowerment with paintbrushes in their hands, I felt a need to immortalize this moment so I quickly grabbed my Polaroid and snapped the image.

As the film emerged, I realized that this Polaroid looked like it could have been taken in the 60s and 70s. My friends and I mirrored the young activists of those times, who were fighting for women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental protection, and of course, peace. We were going to be marching for the exact same causes the next day. While this fact can be disheartening, as it reminds us that 50 years later the same problems exist, there is also hope that comes with drawing a parallel between the present and the past.

At the core of the revolution of the 60s and 70s was the youth: young adults, who revered social justice and were not satisfied with the status quo, that pressed for change. The youth movements became so large that they ended up defining the culture of those decades, even permeating music, art and literature. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been infatuated with those years — it’s not just the music or the emphasis on the arts, but it’s the youth being politically active and pushing for change. And let me make this clear: the spirit of those decades has made its way into the souls of my generation.

The “night before the march” Polaroid first reminded me of this fact, and the feeling of empowerment and activism that followed in the actual march only affirmed it. Thousands of people my age across the country joined in the movement to oppose Trump and the GOP’s hateful leading of our country. Nevertheless, it was the most recent gun violence prevention movement that gained us the title of the largest generation of youth activists since the 70s.

You see, gun violence has become our Vietnam, and the fight for more gun control has become the largest youth-led movement since the anti-Vietnam protests in the 60s and 70s. This is a movement completely started by young people — specifically the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragic shooting — that has gained the support of hundreds of thousands of students and young voters across the nation. Just recently, on March 14, the movement had its first national event and these hundreds of thousands of young adults demanded common-sense gun laws from politicians in a 17 minute school walkout, each occurring at 10 am in their respective time zones.

CHS also had its walkout, and the same group of girls — plus some new guys — took the reins in putting this together. We had been working on this for a month, but what actually happened on March 14 went beyond our dreams. Hundreds of CHS students came out and banded together, cheering on their fellow student speakers while news outlets spread the statement across St. Louis and the country. Students continued the fight during their lunch periods, writing letters to Senator Blunt and registering to vote in the 2018 elections. And the best part is that events like this were taking place all across Missouri and the entire country. Just with this day, we have given our generation the name of political activists, following the footsteps of the youth in the 70s.

If we, the youth, are going to be civically engaged and politically active, there is no way politicians can avoid listening to our demands: this country was founded upon the ideal of representation of the people. When we band together, a sense of hope and empowerment permeates our beings. We know we will be the change. And my hypothesis is that this attitude was what defined the spirit of the movements in the 60s and 70s.

Thus, I call on us today to carry that spirit further. Our revolution has just begun. Time after time again, the argument for gun control has been buried in the news and nothing in policy changes. People lose hope and interest, and the country remains in a catatonic state until another tragedy initiates the same conversation. However, our youth idealism, a trait we are often criticized for, gives us energy and passion, which is exactly what can keep the movement actually moving. So, we must embody the spirit of the 60s and 70s, souls energized with a commitment to being politically active young adults, and never give up the fight. It took anti-Vietnam protesters almost 10 years of demonstrations and political activism before politicians made a change. The only reason this change occurred is because the youth did not give up and submit to the status quo.

No matter how long it takes us, we, the young adults, have to keep fighting — for this cause and all other causes we are fighting for in this politically tumultuous age.

“Revolutions have always been driven by the young,” wrote Tim Kreider in his New York Times commentary, “Go Ahead, Millennials, Destroy Us.” Kreider speaks the truth; I just told you how history agrees. We are the young activists, so it’s time for us to drive this revolution.