February 14, 2018 was like any other Wednesday for me. After school, I went with my golden lab and my friend Isabella Youmans on a hike at Caroline Tuthill Preserve. A group of friends and I had dinner at my house.

But as the day shifted from afternoon to evening, I received an alert or two on my phone about a school shooting in Florida. I flipped on the TV and saw the typical coverage from MSNBC. Deadly school shooting. Predictable responses from the politicians in power. Thoughts and prayers as usual.

As I thought about what would happen next, I figured nothing would change. What happened after Sandy Hook and Las Vegas at the national level? Nothing. Why should I expect anything else? I would see meme after meme on Facebook about how we need gun control. I would see statements with the usual degrees of outrage and horror with the occasional call to action. And then after a few weeks we would move on. Just like every single other time.

But I was wrong. The students from Parkland, Fla. stood up and called b.s. on our leaders for being completely wrong on gun control and ignoring the outcries of students around the nation who no longer feel safe in their schools.

Later I heard about the March for Our Lives, which was being organized by those very same Parkland students for a Saturday in March. I was immediately interested in attending, and when I brought up my interest during a class at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, the response I received probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but I was nevertheless struck by my fellow students’ enthusiasm: “I want to go,” “Oh, me too,” “Can I come with you?”

So I said, with a naivety and optimism reserved for teenagers, that we should organize a bus to go down to D.C. and march. Many people quickly signed up, from the Charter School and then the rest of the community, but a problem emerged: the bus was going to cost about $100 a ticket, even if we successfully filled every single seat. I quickly realized that if teenagers were going to be able to rally with their fellow passionate teens, then we were going to have to raise funds from the community.

The funds came in hot and heavy. The community was nothing short of unbelievable; within weeks I received the full amount for the first bus and, amazingly, a second bus. As the funds came in, so did the numbers for the buses. We ended up with over 100 signups, a large majority of whom were students from the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, Falmouth High School, and other Cape schools.

The March itself was everything I could have wanted and more. There were the revolutionary students from Parkland and elsewhere who stood up on the stage and cultivated our idealistic spirits. They are the students who have not only dealt with tragedy close to them, but have used that anger and disbelief and turned it into action and results.

As we took the bus back home from Washington, the thought that I couldn’t get out of my mind was that this was the beginning of a movement. And it isn’t just about gun control.

Instead, it is about young people finally getting involved. It is about young people knowing who is on the ballot. It is about young people and their fellow young people, friends and acquaintances and people they’ve never met, getting involved. It is about civic engagement no longer being reserved for the dorks.

I am sure that I am speaking for the entire youth delegation in saying thank you for helping our trip get going, and that in return we will stay involved in politics. We will run for office, press our elected officials, and make sure that our disproportionately loud voices speak up over and over and over again.

Keith Chatinover is a senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School.