Anne

There I am at it again: blogging in the middle of the night when everyone else is already in deep slumber (well, almost everyone since one must acknowledge the existence of nocturnal subspecies among mankind).

Today, I would like to talk about a part-time colleague at Inagiku restaurant. Lets call her Anne although it is obviously an awkward name to give to a girl of Burmese ethnicity. Since I have no knowledge whatsoever of the Burmese language, lets be content with the mock name "Anne".

When I first met Anne, the first impression that lighted up in my mind was that she was a typical international student whose parents were rich enough to pay for her bills to study in the local polytechnic. I assumed that she resorted to working simply because she spent all her allowance and her parents refused to send her more. In fact, I had little opinion of her at all since I myself was busy with the demanding chores that a runner was entasked to carry out. We chatted mostly about trivial stuffs and did our own things, though we occasionally helped one another out when need arose.

Then, on one fateful day, I made a call to my employment agency to book for my working slot in the restaurant. The exact wordings of the dialogue with the agent are lost in the shrouded messiness of my mind but here is the gist of the talk:

Me: Hi, is there any (working) slot for coming Sunday(at Inagiku Restaurant)?

Agent: I am sorry there is none. The slot has been taken by Anne.

Me: Who? Can I change slot with her? Can you move her slot to some other time?

Agent: She is studying and that is the only time that she can work.

Me: What about moving her slot to some other day?

Agent: Look, she is motherless and must partially support her family back home while studying here. She really needs this job and the money that comes with it. I don't want to fiddle with her working slots.

Me: Oh, ok then.

The conversation, though short, is more than enough to deal a shocking blow on the nexus of my mind. All the sudden, I feel a sense of awe and guilt. Awe, because she is not some wealthy international student, rather a cash-strapped one who is determined to believe that the education here would provide her and her family a better state of living. Guilt, because I was trying to wrestle away her opportunity to earn the much need income that would go into supporting her family. Whenever I now look into her dark brown eyes, I know better than to judge a book by its cover.

In reality, we are surrounded by individuals, each of whom has his or her own poignant story to tell, unyielding resolve to inspire and amazing contradiction to astound. From the bubbly student on her way to school to the smiling cashier behind the convenience store's counter to a sleepy executive sipping coffee, each is a person unique not only in oneself, but also in one's predicaments and more importantly, one's will to challenge all odds. Anne inspires me.