That night. Let’s just dub it that night (November 8th, 2016). On that night, fear was induced, Canada’s website crashed, and American History changed forever. Some were happy, others were not when the unthinkable happened: Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States.

That night, I prayed on my side of the room for a turn-around as that Orange Devil was winning state after state. Before that, I was in the Coffee Shop (the “hot spot” at SAC) slugging down (overcome with anxiety) my Chai Tea, looking back and forth at the screen behind the table my friends were sitting at the results displayed on Fox News. Whenever Hillary gained victory in a state, I rejoiced as if someone won the lottery; that’s how scared I was for not only my family, but the LGBTQ community, Muslims, women around the world, and America.

As Marilyn Monroe once said, “I don’t mind living in a man’s world, as long as I can be a woman in it.” Well guess what. This is a woman’s world, just as much as it is a man’s. Similarly, I don’t care that my campus is largely conservative, as long I can be my liberal self. The fear of being discriminated by being a liberal female on my campus still sneaks up on me. But after talking to my Spanish Writing Workshop professor, I realized that I have my own voice. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to use my voice, but for a year I was “shut up” by a controlling force that is not to be reckoned with for much longer. The idea of being a liberal female on a college campus came up when I was on a Rural Immersions trip. As mentioned in a previous blog post, one of the founders of Agape Community asked if there was a woman’s group on campus dedicated to women’s rights to which I replied “no, but I am in the process of starting one with the gender studies adviser.” I haven’t mentioned what I did after that awakening weekend. The Monday after, I emailed the gender studies adviser and asked to meet her once and for all to discuss this possibility.

I recently published an article in my school’s newspaper about this women’s collective I’m starting on campus, which I am collaborating with another student of another up-and-coming Social Justice club on campus. It was the day after the election when I went to my gender studies adviser and told her all about my initiatives for what I would call the “Dorothy Day Women’s Collective.” I not only declared a minor in gender studies that day, but I was on the cusp of starting something almost revolutionary. There are plenty of women’s groups on my campus and other colleges (hopefully) have their own women’s collectives, as I say in my article, this is the first of its kind at Saint Anselm. 

This “possibility” became a reality within two weeks. Although it is not officially established (yet), but I managed to recruit students who would become the feminists of Saint Anselm College. Not only that, but we have the BEST, most inspiring adviser ever (: If there is one thing I want for Christmas, it would be to bring social justice to my college campus and to be that organizer of women’s advocacy (notice how I didn’t say activist).

That’s not the only early Christmas present I received. On my last day of finals, I received an email from Her Culture with a position as a magazine writer! I will be writing for not only the Saint Anselm Crier, my loyal followers, but for women of the world.

I’m still waiting for my “Nasty Woman” t-shirt, but I don’t need that to say that Nasty Women get shit done; Nasty Women are go-getters; and Nasty Women make a difference. That’s right, if being a Nasty Woman means all of the above, I’ll be proud to add that title to my resume.