While I realize that I have been writing a lot about inclusion and diversity lately, this post also gives a personal glimpse into one of the most empowering experiences of my life. In 2016, during my first year at UC Berkeley, I was accepted into The Vagina Monologues. For those of you who may not know, The Vagina Monologues is a performance of a series of vignettes related to the experience of being a woman, commonly coupled with original pieces written by the cast. I was lucky enough to be chosen to write an original piece about being a person with a disability and not feeling sexy. In one line, I talked about how I use to watch all those hot, steamy, sex scenes from Grey’s Anatomy, but somehow could never picture myself in the scenes because of my disability. The purpose of that line was to shed light on the fact that society believes that people with disabilities are asexual, and to challenge this faulty assumption. Being able to discuss disability and sexuality in a live theatrical production was extremely powerful.

The Vagina Monologues was an exceedingly influential time in my life in many other ways as well. This was one of the first time that I had the chance to perform live. In high school, the drama teacher did not allow me to audition for their production of “Beauty and the Beast,” because they did not want a person with a disability in the show. At UC Berkeley though, the wheelchair did not matter, and this helped greatly in my confidence to express myself honestly on stage. More importantly, through this process, I made really good friends (Jas, Ace, Devin, and Christine, to name a few.) Having friends was a new concept, because while in an all abled-bodied high school, I didn’t really have friends. Two of my other friends, Mayra and Victoria, created the most unbelievable piece about the real hardships that goes along with trying to cross the Mexican border, in order to live a life without danger in the United States. If we approach undocumented people who need to come to America with compassion, instead of throwing them in detention camps like President Trump has done, the world would be a much better place.