Wendi Cash - Introduction

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My narrative

"The purpose of life is needed for those who need a lot in life: a lot to get from life or a lot to do for life," stated by my teacher. The goal in life is the most significant task that we want to realize in life. A person can have many goals, e.g., to get a decent education, to have a good job, car, money, etc., but the purpose of life is the most important one. Do we need to have a goal in life? And this is something I asked myself because from the last few weeks; I was feeling worthless. And after this question from myself, I get a chance to known about me. Let's start my simple but thoughtful story that surely, belongs to many other women as well. I am a mother of two beautiful young daughters and have my own house. I was a federal contractor who worked for nine years as an administrative assistant. The most exciting thing regarding my job is that I was only one female out of thirteen male members. The nature of my job was related to operations and maintenance of plumbing, electrical work, doors, flooring, etc. Everything was going smooth, but the twist came when I lost the job. And can you imagine losing a job at the age of 53 just due to gender discrimination? I know it is not easy to digest, but this is the turning point of my life, where I started thinking about the purpose of my life.

I must say women's development in a male-centric organization appears to look like a walk on a tight rope. Yes, it is what I have gone through for the last 20 years. However, I believe, the hero of my story is played the role of villain. And do you know who is that person, who merely either; ruined my life or enlightened me with to think about the purpose of my life? He is no one else than my good friend, and so-called my brother in law. The majority of my coworkers have the same typical male egoist mentality. My brother in law was my boss. The other workers do not have any respect for me, or they have not accepted me as they thought I get this job because of my brother in law. It is relatively accurate that women still fight to break the glass ceiling while working with men. For the first couple of years, things were coarse like it was okay for the men to call me "a fucking bitch" or to offer me a cup of coffee without any reason. Even, one of them said to me that you are no more than a paper pusher. Usually, I use to ignore them, but it is not always possible to stay quiet. But I broke my silence, when one of my coworkers said that no woman could tell me "no." Because I am an ideal man and you woman are nothing for me, "nothing but a sex machine," to make men happy. Oh My God, this was something that forced me to burst out, and I give him a shut-up call. Since that day, I have to face a new challenge every day at my office.

My work challenges were from discrimination to demotivation. If I ever tried to follow up on a project or maintenance work, my staff members were not cooperative at all. I often hated the same daily routine of dealing with a group of oblivious blue-collar men. Here I would like to quote from the research of Francis and others, "I have always rejected the concept of gender discrimination, and I would say that there is no need to change women into men" (Francis et al.357). Whereas Whitelaw replied in these words, it is essential just to let women enjoy their reliable attributes. Just let women work and recognize and accept that women are not incomplete in any way (Whitelaw et al.771).

I was a federal employee and our job was on contract after every5 years, our managers need to renew the contract. After the contract was renewed, a successor company supposed to hire every employee as per law by federal executive order placed by President Obama. But it was shocking to me that after renewal, I was not hired. And when I asked this with my brother in law, who was responsible for hiring that "why am I the only one not to be offered a position? He answered rudely that your position was not listed in the contract. I replied, "none of the positions were listed in the contract." He was quite because he does not have an answer. A shocking day, with complete disbelief, that I had no job. There was no reason why they did not hire me. Stress, anxiety, anger, and nervousness are some of the outcomes that I got after losing my job, and it forced me to cry for days. It is not easy to lose a situation when you have no other source of income, and you are the breadwinner for your family. I have a lot of responsibilities like my two daughters, house mortgage, car payments, etc. It was not easy to get a job because there are minimal job options in my area. Other reasons were my age and widespread gender/ job discrimination.

Hence, I have decided to choose an alternative career path so that I can fulfill my responsibilities to give my daughters a successful life. After much prayer and inclined towards God to get me over the difficulty of losing my job, I decided to go back to the school of diagnostic medical sonography program. Yes, it is not easy to pursue a degree after a gap of 20 years, but my motivation and above all my determination allowed me to study a challenging subject like biochemistry. Now, with a positive mind and optimistic thinking, I am pleased over my decision. I remember the words of psychologist Bourbonnais that, awakening with a sensation of purposeless is hugely annoying. I look everywhere and see my networks and colleagues living obsessive, promised, meaningful lives (Bourbonnais355). I am having deep relations, satisfying jobs, and a robust, clear course that forces them to flight each morning with new hope and ambition in their footsteps.

However, I firmly believe that God has somewhat worthy in stock for me. I don't trust that He proposes me to live a lifetime in aching. After all, life is steady full of passageways about delight. However, I stayed positive by believing that life is a complete set of happiness and sorrows. This is somewhat or somehow significant that we ought to find an approach to addressing society. "The level of gender violence especially violence against women withstands a story that nearly admits that you can harass half of our society members and life moves on, as if not anything happened" (Francis et al.358). Violence results in remarkable costs, such as it occurs at the expense of women's healthy lifestyle, health care, productivity, and overall development. We should remove all categories of violence at all spheres of life, whether its workplace violence or in private areas. I have just tried with my aptitude and this narration to change that story, to modify that thinking, to turn that page, to flood society with positivity, and to move government attention towards this topic besides many other individuals who might even disagree with me.

Concludingly my job-related stress, insult, and humiliation that I faced, my sense of responsibility, and financial difficulties forced me to think about the real purpose of my life. The venture I have gone through is gender-based violence and age-based violence. Now, my determination and ambition in life are to complete my degree and get a respectable job. After completion of my degree, I would be able to get a good job of which I can earn well, and provide a better life for my daughters. Joining college again is the purpose of my life that makes me feel delighted to move on with respect and confidence. It does not mean that you have to find the use of your life. That purpose should be delightful and blissful to make you feel delighted, ambitious, and gives you strength and courage to move in the society with confidence.

Works Cited

Bourbonnais, Renée. "Psychosocial work environment, interpersonal violence at work and mental health among correctional officers." International journal of law and psychiatry 30.4-5 (2007): 355-368.

Francis, Becky, et al. "University lecturers' perceptions of gender and undergraduate writing." British Journal of Sociology of Education 24.3 (2003): 357-373.

Reeves, Carol, and Anne M. O’Leary-Kelly. "The effects and costs of intimate partner violence for work organizations." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 22.3 (2007): 327-344.

Todd, Andrew R., Galen V. Bodenhausen, and Adam D. Galinsky. "Perspective taking combats

the denial of intergroup discrimination." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology48.3 (2012): 738-745.

Whitelaw, Joanna, et al. "Work-related violence and threats and the risk of depression and stress disorders." Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 60.9 (2006): 771-775.