Different races. Different cultures. Different religions. Different personalities.

In a multi-cultural country like where I am now, we can't avoid discrimination.

It excuses no one. It happened to me.

1.) Rush hour. I was waiting for a taxi, malayo ang pupuntahan ko, (usually, taxi drivers here, chooses long trips para mas makarami sila), a taxi stopped in front of me, asked me where I would go, I told him the place. Sabi nya, "no!". Then a kinda-European couple came just beside me, told the driver a place nearer than where I was going, to my surprise, um-oo sya! Shocks!

2.) I am a newbie in our company. Because there is no accounting system & filing system (importante sa akin ang kumpleto ang mga docs, dahil kung alang accounting system, yun ang huling pag-asa ko para makapag-start nang maayos). Sa unang buwan ko, nahirapan ako nang husto, kalkal dito, kalkal dun! Until my boss came over & asked me to work on this certain supplier who are already asking for some payments! I began to work on that, & finished it before the supplier came.

Came the supplier na itatago natin sa pangalang "S". My boss believes in me a lot. I can feel that. (Yabang noh?!) So instead of him talking to S, he asked me to face him! When I entered the room, nagulat sya. In their language, which in anyway, I understood. He's like, "why she?, what does she know about all of these?!"

I was not hesitant to discuss the matter with him because I was ready. He couldn't believe me. He tried to trick me. Until he gave up (first day palang yun!). He said he'd call his wife. I said firmly, "just call me when you need something to ask me". Until I went home, he never said a word.

The next day, he came early with bunch of papers with all his computations & explanations! He said he spent two hours in the phone with his wife. Kiber! Basta ako, nakatulog ako nang mahimbing! I gave him the time to talk. When I began to question what he was explaining, he started to raise his voice! Strongly, I insisted with what I had accounted. My heart was pounding so hard, I could hardly breathe. Until ala na syang magawa dahil alam nya sa sarili nyang alam ko kung ano ang sinasabi at ginagawa ko!

It was a hard situation to prove myself to a person who judged me down the first time he saw me. He came from a first-world country, I came from a third-world. He is white, I am brown. He is tall, I am petite. He is the boss of his company, I am an ordinary hardworking employee. He is older & more experienced than I am. But it neither gives him the excuse nor the chance to underestimate a Filipina like me. I just proved him that the saying "don't judge the book by its cover" is absolutely right - because he could never really tell what's inside the cover - it might surprise him!

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