(LifeSiteNews) — During my three years at a liberal American university, I became accustomed to feeling like the only conservative on campus. Between defaced pro-life posters, professors suggesting that there are an infinite number of genders, and campus programs offering free condoms on Valentine’s Day, a day in the life of a conservative college student is, unsurprisingly, exhausting.

And the liberal climate has only increased over the past few years.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit halfway through my first year in college. I knew my university was woke as soon as we were asked our “preferred pronouns” during orientation, but the push to accept left-wing ideologies worsened with the rollout of the experimental “vaccines” and the revived “Black Lives Matter” movement. Most recently, there has been an unrelenting push to accept gender ideology, from irresponsible sexual habits to same-sex relationships and full-blown transgenderism.

And what demographic appears at the face of all these movements? Young people. Teenagers and young adults are targeted with these ideologies because we’re passionate and stubborn and willing to invest in any cause that piques our interest and emotions. We’re the perfect clay to mold into activists.

I know I’m not the only young American who feels the weight of the catastrophic reality our generation faces. We’re being viciously attacked, and it seems that there are precious few of us standing against the lies being forced onto us every day. I feel this discouragement, bordering on despair, that other young conservatives and Christians feel. But then I attended a conservative event on a public college campus, and my perspective was honed.

Earlier this week, the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) chapter at James Madison University (JMU) hosted Catholic speaker Liz Wheeler to discuss “The Ideology of Transgenderism.” As expected, the event was met with significant backlash from students, who immediately planned to protest during the speech. Half expecting a riot to break out after Riley Gaines and Michael Knowles were met with violent outbursts from activists at recent talks, I instead found that the protesters were completely peaceful and were greatly outnumbered by supporters.

Having arrived early for the event, I was shocked to see a line already winding across the building and weaving out the door, filled with mostly young adults like me waiting to hear the truth. As I stood there, listening to other students sing praise and worship music outside the building and marveling with my companions about the crowd, young people kept coming. The line continued to grow and many who came were turned away as the room filled quickly.

While most of the audience was in agreement with Wheeler and her speech, some were not. I was equally impressed with my peers who questioned the truths she shared with respect and composure. Nobody lashed out at anyone else. It was a conversation, a small debate. I had nearly forgotten what those sounded like.

Sitting in that crowded room, surrounded by over 100 like-minded young adults, I was overwhelmed by the realization that I’m not the only one in my generation who believes and defends the truth. For three years, I felt as if I was, often leaving a classroom fighting back tears because it’s so hard to live a life of faith and morality in modern-day America. But while the ideologies target young people and often succeed in pulling them away from the truth, know that they aren’t as influential as it may seem.

Those involved in a movement such as gender ideology want us to think we’re outcasts and a minority. But the reality is that just because people are loud doesn’t mean that they have the whole world behind them. They’re just being given the megaphone. Often, when we feel like we’re the only ones fighting on a given side, we eventually give up, tossing our convictions aside as incorrect because we can’t possibly be the only ones who are right. But what if that’s just what the other side, the devil, wants us to think? To all the conservative young Americans fighting for the truth — pushing back against abortion, gender ideology, critical race theory, satanism — you’re not alone. So don’t give up the fight.