My boyfriend and I always had our own struggles. Conflicts in our relationship, our fights, our disagreements. But they exist just like any other relationship. Any other same culture relationship. My relationship with my SO consistently gets judged and misinterpreted by my traditional Chinese conservative parents, by strangers on the street, by older people from my own culture. Their stares would linger on us more than any other "regular" couple and would have this disapproving glint. As if love between different skin colors is different than similar skin colors, are different than similar cultures being intertwined.

But what's the difference? Who's to say what determines love? If love is alive and vibrant between two people, shouldn't they remain in harmony? I would constantly feel uncomfortable, and on top of my own personal anxiety struggles, the opinions of others would sometimes convince me that I'm with the wrong person. And that does should not happen.

We have been with each other for almost three years, and even though we were on and off at some points in our lives, that did not stop us from realizing the love we did have for each other. Some of our disagreements did stem from cultural differences, but a lot of them were because of our internal beliefs, just like any other relationship would have. If the world would have an open- mind and see that every couple in the universe is a relationship between two entirely separate entities, regardless of the color of their skin, interracial relationships can then be widely accepted.

I feel like the topic of interracial relationships are something that people tend to ignore, even though, they are no longer uncommon. Ever since the court case for interracial marriage, Loving v. Virginia came to be in the year of 1967, the controversial opinions of love in these types of relationships were not shot down. People, especially those that come from traditional upbringings frown upon love between two people of different race or culture.

In the now modern world of 2019 where the LGBTQ+ community had been widely recognized over the years, I believe the topic of interracial dating/marriage should also be addressed. For those whom their parents had been supportive of their SOs being a different race, I applaud those that were there for their child from the very start. However, for those who chose to be ignorant and stubborn because of how they were taught or experienced, I look down on y'll. Not because of how you were taught, or raised no, because that I completely understand. Everyone has a bias, and I'm not going to argue that that is something wrong. Even I have a bias on certain topics. But the reason I look down on those who are ignorant, it's because, in the end, they had the choice to be more open-minded, but they didn't take that choice to set themselves free from ignorance.

Ignorance is a drug that pulls all of us in because of our own stubborn beliefs, that some of us truly believe is right. My parents have consistently told me to look for someone "within my own culture" because it would not have the problem of there being a language barrier or culture barrier. But seriously. Should that all there is for a certain relationship to have stability? I personally believe that's such a small factor in determining the length of a long-lasting relationship. If there's a language barrier, learn English. If there's a culture barrier, get to know my SO and introduce him to the culture. That's one small step to the bigger choice of refusing ignorance.

I love him, and I hate having to walk along the public streets of NYC with strangers having their eyes on us as if we're a pair that shouldn't go together. Yes, it may look strange. Yes, it may look "out of the ordinary" but it's our life. It's our love, and we don't want anyone else to take part in it.