Many girls dream of their wedding day. Marrying the love of their life, walking down the aisle with their father, wearing a beautiful dress, and imagining what their venue and decor would look like. Throughout the years, I have met and befriended many Desi people, which are people of Pakistani, Indian, or Bangladeshi descent. From them, I have heard the stories of these extravagant weddings and have had the pleasure of viewing photos. An alluring stunning wedding has captivated me. The bride is covered in lavish jewels and a detailed henna is wrapped around her arms and hands. I have been informed that the wedding lasts for more than one day, therefore creating an enjoyable and cultural experience. I am Filipino and an aspiring wedding photographer, so I assumed I would not have a wedding like that and chose to admire the beauty of Desi weddings by checking out portfolios of successful wedding photographers. However, a year ago, I met a young man who moved to America from Pakistan. We started dating and overtime got to know each other very well. We became best friends, and a mutual understanding and feeling developed that we wanted this bond to last forever. One day, my boyfriend was describing his experiences of attending Pakistani weddings of family members with fondness. Naturally, we began naively imagining what our wedding would look like and how we could blend our two vastly different cultures together. I pictured our wedding day, seeing him stand across the long aisle of a church wearing a silky, translucent white Filipino Barong, the traditional wedding attire for Filipino grooms, with a gleaming smile on his face. My whole body surged with joy and was covered in a deep red, glittering Pakistani dress as I walked towards him. I looked to the audience and envisioned our family members all present and getting along, crying and feeling happy for us. Suddenly, reality slapped us in the face to remind us it is not a simple and religiously accepted ideal to marry someone of opposing belief. His parents are not even aware we are dating yet, because they would not approve of their son being with a Christian-Catholic woman. Also, neither of us are willing to convert, because it would feel like changing our name and identity; something we have associated ourselves with since birth. With a dejected look on his face, he unpleasantly admitted he could never marry a non-Muslim woman, but still wants to be with me. Tears started trickling down my cheeks, confused of what that means for our relationship and future. Additionally, even though there are many important aspects to marriage, religion is one of the most significant ones. It would cause conflict in the relationship if a child is born with parents of differing religions to decide which religion the child would be raised with. Of course, we agreed we are still too young and not ready for marriage anytime soon. Nonetheless, as years pass by, the question is asked, and the problematic situation arises, what will we do? People don't say things just for the hell of it. It has one definition. Sharpen your vocabulary a little more and broaden your horizons, because I promise you that if people with disabilities could banish that word forever, they would. Especially when people associate it with drunks, bad decisions, idiotic statements, their enemies and other meaningless issues. Oh trust me, they are way more than that. This is not a valid email, please try again. I'm not quite sure if you have had your eyes opened as to what a disabled person is capable of, but let me go ahead and lay it out there for you. You are so selfless to hang out with her. A living, breathing, normal girl who has feelings, friends, thousands of abilities, knowledge, and compassion out the wazoo. She listens better than anyone I know, she gets more excited to see me than anyone I know, and she works harder at her hobbies, school, work, and sports than anyone I know. She attends a private school, is a member of the swim team, has won multiple events in the Special Olympics, is in the school choir, and could quite possibly be the most popular girl at her school! I hang out with her because she is one of the people who has so effortlessly taught me simplicity, gratitude, strength, faith, passion, love, genuine happiness and so much more. Speaking for the people who cannot defend themselves: choose a new word. The trend has gone out of style, just like smoking cigarettes or not wearing your seat belt. It is poisonous, it is ignorant, and it is low class. As I explained above, most people with disabilities are actually more capable than a normal human because of their advantageous ways of making peoples' days and unknowingly changing lives. Hang out with a handicapped person, even if it is just for a day. I can one hundred percent guarantee you will bite your tongue next time you go to use the term out of context. Watching Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the stand has been one of the most titillating current events I've seen in a while. Observing the sheer ignorance of people has been shocking. But in the end, I can't say I'm shocked at the outcome of his confirmation vote. If you haven't been keeping up with the news,. The Supreme Court justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, was being accused of sexual assault when he was in college. And if we are making it acceptable that a Supreme Court justice can be like any cruddy college kid, then we need to reevaluate who we want in ourSupreme Court. This is not a valid email, please try again. In the end, Kavanaugh was confirmed to be the Supreme Court justice after a painfully close vote of 50:48. And because of the way politics work, opposers of Kavanaugh are being painted as mobs trying to destroy someone's life, and supporters are seen as ignorant people blindly praising someone because they hold the same ideals. Again, I'm not surprised. Rather than looking at Kavanaugh and the allegations against him specifically, I took into consideration the world around him and how it would potentially shape the outcome of his confirmation. Naturally, the first thing I look at is the president. President Trump himself has faced several sexual harassment allegations, most of which can easily be found on YouTube. Without even looking at the number of sexual harassment allegations towards him, what is almost more striking is how he treats them. If this is the standard, if this is the icon of the American people, if this is whom we trust to appoint the Supreme Court justice, did we expect Kavanaugh not to be confirmed in this culture of dismissing and not talking about sexual harassment and assault? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to matter how many people come forward or how many celebrities stand up as beacons against sexual assault if we can't make our own lawmakers and executors truly talk about the problem, nothing will really change. However, these are the first steps. Now, it's up to the American people to campaign to their legislators to make true change.