I Am Who I Am

When the world is against you, you must stand up. You must show everyone that you still here, ready to fight. My mom always says if you let someone step on you once he will do it again, and I’m not going to let that happen. When I was 13 years old, and I was suspended from school, my father said, “you need to learn to choose your fights”. Even so, my mom kept whispering in my ear “don’t let anyone step on you!” I couldn’t understand my father, I couldn’t understand why I needed to choose. No-one should ever treat me like I beneath him.

Until this second I never let anyone prove me wrong or step on me or act like I’m beneath him but yet it happened, in the most awful way! and even more surprising that I allowed it to happen! I allowed it to continue! could you believe it!? I couldn’t. Before it happened I couldn’t even imagine it!

For the first time in my life I understood my father’s words.  All of it suddenly make sense, and I realized that I’ve got to learn how to choose my fights.

When I thought about this situation I couldn’t help to wonder if things could be different, but I quickly realized that I wouldn’t change a thing. It was an enlightening experience. It all started the moment I decided to represent my company in Japan. I immediately booked a ticket to the next ship to Japan. I love adventures, but I was completely unaware of the experience that I was going to have. So I pack my belonging and the journey was began.

The next week was crazy, I arrived at the port quite early, as always, and then I was informed that I was going to share my accommodations with some Englishman, I didn’t like it. Englishmen always find a way to be condescending and they really hard to like. After I heard that, I immediately took my passport and put it in my pocket. As I expected, the Englishman was arrogant and didn’t believe me when I said I was English as well. I was prepared for this moment, I took out my passport and waved it under his nose. Even though I’m only half English and normally wouldn’t mention it I just couldn’t give him the satisfaction of feeling above me. Of course as a small revenge I forced him to watch me perform three cards tricks, I knew his manners wouldn’t let him declaim, English manners are so boring and predictable, and don’t even let me begin talking about their condescension. at least I know how to shut their mouths and get even.

I decided to be productive and arrange games, one time I even arranged an auction! It was amazing I got to know so many people. One day they even decided to give me a nickname – “Mr. know all” I guess I do know a lot about everything. I earned this title, I love to be appreciated and feel valuable.

Most of our time on the ship has passed, I mostly love dinner time. I set at the doctors’ table, the most honorable table! I sat there with my English pal who was tolerable and a cute couple, the Ramsays. The woman was tiny and well mannered. I could see that everyone admired her. On the other hand, her husband was smug and arrogant. He just loves to argue especially with me and hates to lose almost as much as I.

One evening, the doctors started talking about cultured pearls in Japan. With no hesitation I immediately started telling them all about pearls, its my line of work so I could talk about them for ages! Of course! Mr. Ramsay couldn’t pass up the opportunity to annoy me, and he started spewing false information! It really irritated me since I’m an expert in the field of pearls, and after something especially stupid that he said, I started to shout and declared that it was my profession, so if anybody should know a thing about pearls, I would know a thousand! After a few moments of silence, Mr. Ramsay asked me about his wife’s necklace. I remember seeing it on the first day on the ship and asking my self how a lady with such good taste in jewelry could ever marry a man like that. To prove my knowledge to Mr. Ramsay, I exclaimed that his wife’s pearls were of very high quality, but his response was not what I had expected. Mr. Ramsay smiled in a way that I didn’t like, and said, “Those are cultured pearls.” Within two minutes we already had a bet in place and the conditions were set. For the entire time Mrs. Ramsay was opposed to the bet, and tried to convince her husband to back off. Mr. Ramsay handed me her necklace and I inspected it with my magnifying glass. My previous claims were immediately confirmed by the inspection, I picked my head up and started to smile in delight. Suddenly, I noticed the look on Mrs. Ramsay’s face, and it hit me – Mrs. Ramsay was hiding something from her husband. There’s no way they could have afforded something like that, not even with a year of Mr. Ramsay’s salary. I faced a very difficult decision, and I was sorry that I even got into this situation in the first place, but I thought to myself, “I know what I’m talking about, and I don’t need to prove anything to anyone.” The words my father told me rang through my head: “Learn to choose your fights.” I finally understood what he meant.