When I began a Feminist Facebook group with my good friend Cai, we had a lot of fury. It began at the bar, as many things do when we are together, with another friend of ours who Cai was seeing at the time. Known for getting a little too drunk at his own bar, the owner ends up making comments at us and asking, "Why would beautiful girls like you need to date other women?" To which we snogged and (soon enough) the Feminists of Salem were born. We didn't have a real direction at first. Cai, co-owner of HausWitch Home and Healing has a spiritual connection to feminism while I find artistic expression of it very empowering. Here are five things I learned after starting this group.

1. Patience

We began with weekly meetings that slowly fizzled out. Attendance was low and passion seemed to stay behind the screens on our Facebook forum. In beginning of any group or campaign in our generation, this is a huge obstacle. We found new events to bring everyone together on occasion. Yet, I still struggle to find the patience to constantly adjust to everyone's schedules, which brings me to my next point.

2. Determination

When you believe in something so much it is tough to give up, right? Wrong. There have been so many times that I have wanted to step down or pass the baton - but I don't think anyone else is there to take it. As much as we have a great group of people, everyone has their own responsibilities. Mine is to make this work.

3. Compassion

This is the big one. In our forum, we have found that many of us, though all feminists, disagree on many topics. We have to learn to agree to disagree and love each other just the same. Love is what feminism is to me, and using our love to work against the epidemic of hate. We cannot allow ourselves to crumble under the same circumstances.

(This also means having the guts to remove people from a group whom I know IRL when they are purposely attacking another member.)

4. Creativity

Being able to adapt to changing scenarios for events requires creativity. Also, being able to create events that make any sort of impact requires some creative planning. Our Feminist Art Wednesday is definitely one of our favorites.

5. Humility

A video shared from a vegan feminist page featured someone speaking about intersectional feminism - she made one of the greatest points I have yet to hear: if you are discussing intersectionality in a group and someone is discussing their experience and suddenly you feel as though you're identity is being diminished, realize that the way you are feeling is how many people feel on a regular basis. You need to "sit down and shut up" and just listen to this person's experience to understand. This is one of the greatest lessons because as we fight for social justice we need to "check our privilege" and "leave it at the door."