Final guest post from contributor Amietee Fuondjing- Class of 2018

We are more alike than we choose to admit, no matter how much we subscribe to the stereotypes that constantly divide us. We all feel the same things. We all hurt, we all dream, and our end goal is happiness. We are two sides of the same coin.

Why is it that males and females are at a war? Why are we always butting heads? I believe men and women were placed on this earth for one another. Anatomically, biologically, and emotionally we fit together like puzzle pieces. At some point in time we will seek the love and perspective of the opposite sex. Whether it comes in the form of a romantic partner, father, mother, brother, sister, or friend we will depend on the other sex to provide us something we cannot produce ourselves. In simple terms we need each other to survive, but we choose to ignore our destinies and put up walls that keep our star-crossed counterparts out.

This problem is especially pertinent in my generation. We habitually tear each other down instead of building each other up. We employ awful adjectives in our descriptions of the other sex which only helps to polarize us even more. “Men are trash” or “women aren’t loyal.” This negative tension we’ve nursed explains why we have developed such little faith in relationships involving the other sex. These days a boy and a girl head into a relationship already expecting the worst, thinking up every possible way why it will not work and preparing their escape plans. It’s become so bad we have created this romantic wasteland called the “talking stage” because we are too afraid of totally handing ourselves over to the care of someone we automatically preconceive as unsafe. Young men who have mothers and sisters themselves are fearful to have daughters of their own. It is simply silly! Our views towards each other have become so polluted and hopeless. It is up to us to do better, to hold ourselves to better standards, to treat each other better, to restore faith in our star-crossed counterparts.

There are so many politics the world throws at us to keep us separated. But the key to solving these problems is when we momentarily put our differences aside and engage in open, comfortable dialogue about our sexuality and spirituality. When we do this we eliminate all the made up awkwardness. We learn more about each other, we learn to empathize, we learn to love, and we learn to become one.