This summer, as a fresh, broke college student, I decided to spend my summer in the only way I can - to get less broke, so life can be easier. This means getting a job. This summer I decided to get a new job for higher pay, because I was not interested in being broke while my body breaks at the same time. Finding out that Panda Express was hiring for $12 an hour (AND you also get free food) was the answer to my pain. The experience at Panda Express didn't just give an answer to my broke self but also to my feminist self.
My parents are very traditional and conservative. They came from a rural place in China where the idea that woman and man can be the same seemed ludicrous. The man was seen as the ideal gender. When my older sister was born, my grandmother from my dad's side took one glance at her and was disappointed with my mother. That grandmother was so careless with my sister that my sister almost died of suffocation … twice.
When my sister and I were born, my grandmother from my father's side refused to take care of us even though it was traditionally the husband's mother that helped take care of the children - is that irony I sense? Although my parents weren't that intense, the sense that I was inferior to my younger brother was clear. I was told that I needed to keep my room extra clean because I was a girl. That's only the surface of the water. My parents also told me that I didn't need to go to a great college and graduate school because that will be too much stress for a girl. This goes beyond education and into career.
When I told them about my ambitious career goals, they were hesitant. They insisted that I choose an easier career path because girls do not need to work this hard. Where boys are pushed to reach their dreams, I was told that my dreams were not valid - not because I couldn't reach them, but because it wasn't meant to be mine as I was a girl. They tried to implement limitations to me even in the little ways. At the restaurant where I worked, I was curious and wanted to help cook. When my father heard of that, my father became infuriated and stated that I was very unladylike. Cooking at restaurants were jobs for men, he stated. I needed to remain as the waitress.
When I interviewed at Panda Express, I was surprised that the manager was a woman - that was a first. When I got the job, I expected myself to be in front of the house as one of the servers. However, I was wrong - I was actually the back of the house as the side chef. The environment already felt so different from my old job - both of the managers were women, all of my male co-workers were very encouraging, and I cooked beside another female chef. The fire doesn't care whoever uses it, so I lit it up and did something I shouldn't have done. I don't think I am the best at cooking, but I showed myself that I could. The job showed me that woman are much more capable than how some man estimates us. When my father heard about what I was doing at the restaurant, he was surprised - nothing else. My sister had actually overheard him complimenting me to his friends as he said how I was a chef. I think he just needed to see that whatever he thought was impossible for me was possible in order to accept it.
This simple job gave me an increasing confidence in myself, but also in other women. Every time I turn on the fire on the wok, it also lights up my ambition to reach those dreams that belong to me - a woman.
