Unsaid

Friday March 13
11:25 pm

There were many Instagram stories about the upcoming protest that was supposed to take place on Friday from 11:05 pm to the end of lunch by students who wanted to make a move against the current President Trump administration and ICE.

Unsure of how this move of mine would affect our immigration status, I grabbed my lunch and walked outside the cafeteria, where we were supposed to meet, then protest and maybe march.

By 11:15 p.m., not many students were ready, and the protest organizers were confused about what to tell.

“You guys can just come up and say what you want.”

A girl came and stood on the round metal green table. She said I’m going to march outside of school. How many of you are brave enough to come and march outside the school area, where it’s safe to be outside, and show our move to most of what we can do?

Almost everyone agreed and walked the way she was leading in the march. I hadn’t brought any mask and didn’t have any hoodie to hide behind, but what is the cost, I thought.

Around 40 people walked in her direction; other students from in front of us were either confused or laughing.

“Some people left already.”

“Where exactly are we going to?”

“This is embarrassing.”

“Wait, why is she so far in front?”

3 of the security guards were outside, supposedly ensuring security, but it didn’t take much longer than five minutes before the groups separated.

Some said it was too cold to walk the full route. They suggested taking a shortcut. Some said we go from outside to march outside of the school field and gather students, and there I was, wondering why we were marching to the school track field, which is so private inside the school, with limited people who are only there during lunch to play some sports, if we truly wanted to make a move?

The girl who had stood up on the table earlier was far gone in front with some people following her. We were in the middle, standing near the school fence, wondering where we were going, and the last part met their friends and walked back to school.

“Does anyone have her number or people with her to ask where they are?”

No one knew really, we were just standing there, 6 people and 2 posters.

“Was that it?” Asked one of the security councils of our school, watching half of the protesters go, and us walking to the school portables.

“No, we are going from the shortcut to the field.” Ensured one of the girls.

We did walk to the field, which was almost empty, and no one who was protesting was there from the front part of the group. Security had come with us, but more than our disappointment, I felt bad for him for believing there would be a crowd.

It was then so clear, to me it seemed like one little and clear representation of how so many corrupt governments stayed for long, and people didn’t overthrow them. The truth is, people tried to stop the tyranny, but it’s impossible with the lack of communication, commitment, and clear organization.

Like the people who went to the field and came back disappointed, I also came back, only to find out some people were waiting outside the cafeteria now!

After 30 minutes of a hollow, boneless, uncommitted attempt to make remarks for effect by a “protest.”

Yet I’m proud that the school at least had some students who sacrificed their lunch time on a Friday for something with a significant “idea,” since the action was not very effectively organized.

I hope this will be a great opportunity to learn from our mistakes for the upcoming ones; however, it’s still good to know some people cared enough to come. Maybe this leads to better protests in the future.