a loss of words.

these are two five year old girls.

they are being carried to their own weddings ceremonies.

in america, it's impossible for most of us to fathom getting married at such a young age. but in many countries across the world, it's a tradition. a somber one, at that.

despite many lax laws that have been put in place to try and stop child marriages, approximately 64 million women were married before the age of 18. why?

in most cases, it's an issue of money. a groom's family often pays what's known as a "bride price", and the younger the bride, the more the groom pays. most families "sell" their daughters to support themselves.

besides the fact that it's a clear violation of a person's human rights to be married against their will, it's also traumatizing and dangerous.

tahani, a young girl from the city of hajjah, yemen, was only 6 years old when she was married to a 25 year old man. "whenever i saw him, i hid. i hated to see him," she said.

another 13 year old girl in yemen was killed after her husband forced her to have sex with him. he ruptured her vaginal canal, and she eventually bled to her death.

it's painful to think that some people are forced to learn to love someone. potentially someone that can hurt them. the idea of falling in love is almost unheard of. these girls are rushed into marriages while they are still young children, and should be off playing.

what's even more upsetting is that marriage has no value in these cases. there's no love. there's no connection. it's two young children, being forced to get married. for money.

it's a demoralizing tradition. when you read stories about these poor child brides, you can't help but cry. and you can't help but be so thankful that it's not you. and then, you realize, you have to help.

i ask you to please help these children that are mired in poverty. to help these children that will never know life. never know love. it's our responsibility as humans to help our brothers, our sisters, that are struggling. because you know what?

it just as easily could have been you.

http://www.care.org/campaigns/childmarriage/index.asp

run fast for your mother

my little girl
she is my princess
and i leave her the world
and i know
someday
 a change is gonna come.

nostalgia

                                                          fucking quote of the day

last year at this time, my life was different. my life was a shallow pond, nothing more than what you could see with your two eyes. i used to see a wavy reflection of myself in the pool of water and wonder what i was supposed to be.

i would go to school and pretend. come home and pretend. i was a puppet, my arms and legs moving without a thought, this way and that, back and forth.

the rhythm of my life was slow and steady. a predictable beat that narrated my life. i was so excited for change.

a change that would come. a change that would free me from who i was. a change that would make me who i wanted to be.

but instead i got this.

i became the small rain drops that fell from the sky when the world was parched. i became the mosquito bite on your leg that you knew was there, but still tried not to itch.

and so i became who i never thought i would. i became the opposite of my dream. but sometimes, that's okay.

sometimes, it's okay to take an ice-cold shower because all the hot water ran out. sometimes it's okay to let go.

but sometimes i let go too much. i become the spool of thread that's too unwound, and gets pushed to the back of the closet. i become the person who gives up. the silver medal. the first loser.

and i become the person i never wanted to be.

songs you should check out + finals

skinny love by bon iver.

bon iver is one of my favorite bands. not to mention that it's a play on the french phrase "bon hiver", meaning "good winter". i love all of bon iver's music, especially their songs from for emma, but there's something about skinny love that gets to me. i'm not even sure what. the lyrics are so powerful, yet so simple.

make you feel my love by adele.

i've been an adele fan for a while, long before this whole rolling in the deep nonsense (honestly, i don't think that's one of her best songs). this song haunts me. adele's voice is so perfect, so raw, yet so polished, and it gets me every single time. her voice has notes of heartbreak in it, but it stays so strong, that it kills me. this is one of the most beautiful fucking songs i've ever heard, and adele should win a grammy or some shit like that for this.

someday by the strokes.

last year at this time, my favorite bands was easily the strokes. and i still love them, but i've forgotten them. my ipod was on shuffle, and this song came up. needless to say, i'm completely obsessed again. i think this song is, dare i say, a bit lighter than some of their other songs, but still has the same beauty as all of their music does.

hey finals. you're 16 days away. fuck you.

the buddha + the terrorist

every once in a while, you encounter a profound story that challenges what you thought of okay.



the buddha and the terrorist, my friends, is that very book. this book, written by satish kumar, questions our society's stance on violence. we've all grown up in a society that's war-torn, and it seems like even our own leaders are confused about how to deal with problems. their solution? violence. this book breaks down the wall of violence we all have built up, and truly is a message of hope.

in the book, a murderer named angulimala mindlessly kills people. one day, the buddha comes up to him, and questions him: why does he kill people he doesn't even know? the buddha finally gets to him, and causes a complete transformation in angulimala. when the buddha brings him back to the village where he killed so many people, all of the villagers want him killed.

then the buddha asks,
"angulimala killed people because he was filled with anger. you too are filled with anger and wish to kill him. how can anyone dissolve anger with more anger? fire cannot be extinguished by adding more fire- only water can extinguish fire. only with love can we overcome hate. only with trust can we overcome fear."

these powerful words made me question the way we live our lives. we're always taught to never let people take advantage of us, and to always fight back. but maybe that's the problem. maybe the reason our country is so messed up is because we just can't admit that we're wrong. and what's worse, we're not capable of forgiveness. we're not capable of forgiving people who have messed up because we're so certain that they'll mess up. we forget that all humans are capable of change.

"we are all changing all the time. the only thing we cannot do is to stop the process of change. only through change do we grow and evolve, so let us not be afraid of change."

you hear that? let us not fear change. let us embrace every inch of it. because the only way we will be able to overcome the violence that plagues this world is change. plain and simple. 

cupcakes + cashmere

cupcakes and cashmere is perhaps one of my favorite fashion blogs.

all photos are respective property of cupcakes and cashmere.

i wish i could pull off something as simple and breezy as this and still look effortlessly gorgeous. a lot of the times, i'm wary of wearing bland colors together, but this outfit is a great example of how a pale pink and a creamy beige can really compliment each other.

bell bottoms are the yoga pants of fashion- they are perhaps the most comfortable pants in your closet, but people will give you some weird looks if you wear them in public. in addition, they can swallow up short people. regardless, i love the look of them.  i would have steered away from choosing a looser shirt for the top, but i think it really accents the shape of the jeans without making it costume-y.

there are so many things i absolutely adore about this look. i love the neutral color palette with a pop of a bright color. it's something that's in, but i've liked it for a while. what's even more interesting is that she chose to mix two colors from the same family: a bright red orange, and a paler, more yellow-toned orange. together, they really do brighten up anyone's day.

tumblr + artist of the week

it's shameless self-promotion time, my friends.

first up, tumblr.

loneliestplanet.tumblr.com

i legitametely love tumblr, and i pray that it doesn't become as mainstream as say, facebook. the tumblr community is hilarious, and i can easily spend hours on tumblr. instead of doing more important things. like you know, maybe writing an english paper. cough cough.

artist of the week time!

this is moby. last week at this time, i had no idea he existed. ever since i got into my MIA pandora station again, this little fellow's been popping up. and for good reason.

and as awesome as it would be if it were true, his name is not moby. it's richard melville hall. yeah. i would stick with moby too. it's hard to put his music into a specific genre, but it's just happy music. the kind of music you hear that just makes you kind of dance around in your chair, because you're way too dignified to get up and start dancing. ahem. 

the funny thing is, when you look at his lyrics, they're really, well, christian. but he sings in such a way that you can never really understand his lyrics. they just sound really cool. i really like him, and even if it's just a face, he's a refreshing face in the music industry.