This past week, we had to read "Shooting Dad," by Sarah Vowell, and I felt a real connection to the author; she says she lived in, "a house divided," and she and her dad were distant but similar. My father and I have a pretty close relationship, but other than that, I saw many similarities that made me like the piece and think about it even after the assignment was over.
Vowell's house was divided because of political differences between her and her father, and her father was very conservative, as is my father. My house, too, is divided because my mom (though she says otherwise) leans more towards being democratic.
She describes her dad as a gun-loving NRA member and as I was reading this I kept thinking, "That sounds just like my dad!" My father isn't nearly as obsessed with guns as hers is, but he and his friends love to go shooting and he always says he's ready for the zombie apocalypse and threatens to be cleaning his guns when I bring home future boyfriends. Reading another girl's perspective on her father's love for guns was a really weird thing, to be honest because she was so opposed to them whereas I'm more indifferent, and just used to them.
However, once Vowell realized how similar she and her father really are, I really felt more connected to her; my father and I are extremely similar, and we're also quite like Sarah and her father. We too, are "smart alecky," and I love music, like Sarah, and, as I described earlier, our fathers are both gun fans.
It's kinda cool to know there are people out there that so closely resemble relationships you have people you are close to.
In class this week, we read an essay called "Disability" by Nancy Mairs; in it, she was very blunt about that fact that disabilities do not have to define people and that non-disabled people need to be exposed to them to see how normal they really are.
I agree with Mairs in that I don't think that a disability has to rule your life or completely define you. Whenever you're around people with disabilities, they want to be treated normally because we really aren't that different; Mairs brings up the point that she still buys tampons, mouthwash and bleaches her family's underwear just as any other woman would because she isn't a different species, she's still a human and does the same things that all women do. I don't think that all of society really understands this though, and so they're led to believe that people with disabilities should get special treatment or need extra help just because they're different. Society needs to be aware of the fact that having a disability such as multiple sclerosis does not make people a different species, and that they're much more alike than some people chose to believe.
I know that people with disabilities aren't totally defined by their disability and are very similar to everyone else because I know someone with MS. If you've ever seen my red wristband and wondered what it says, it says "HOPE" and "nationalmssociety.org" and I wear it in support of my cousin was diagnosed with MS at the age of 17 (which is very young to be diagnosed) and you probably won't ever see me without it. I see her multiple times every year and if I didn't know she had MS, I wouldn't be able to tell. If you saw her on the street, you wouldn't be able to tell she has MS because she isn't letting MS define her, so she does completely normal things like going to college, having a job and even going to concerts with her favorite younger girl cousin. Just because someone has a disability doesn't mean they're different, doesn't mean they need help or special treatment. And remember, disabled people are just regular people.
She describes her dad as a gun-loving NRA member and as I was reading this I kept thinking, "That sounds just like my dad!" My father isn't nearly as obsessed with guns as hers is, but he and his friends love to go shooting and he always says he's ready for the zombie apocalypse and threatens to be cleaning his guns when I bring home future boyfriends. Reading another girl's perspective on her father's love for guns was a really weird thing, to be honest because she was so opposed to them whereas I'm more indifferent, and just used to them. 
