A Story...

It's been a while since I have written a personal entry but I jut felt like I need to share this story...

I was at work (AE) yesterday in the fitting rooms helping people and processing the go backs, when in comes this little Indian girl wanting to try on a pair of jeans. She must have been about 12 years old; she was so very sweet. Well after letting her into the room her brother, who must have been only a few years older then her, came into the fitting room wanting to know what she was trying on. She opened the door to show him the jeans that she had picked out, which I must say looked great on her, anyhow the brothers immediate reaction was, "Those look like dude's jeans". I couldn't help but to laugh. But this is not what bothered me. After arguing back and forth about if they were "dude's jeans" the brother told his sister that she was not allowed to get the jeans because he had final say in the matter and his say was NO! I stopped what I was doing and just looked at them. I can only imagine what my face looked like to them, because I was very upset. To make matters worst their mother came in and without even asking the daughter what she thought turned to the brother and said, "What do you think", he immediately voiced his dislike for the pair of jeans and stated that he did not approve of her buying them. So the mother, again without even talking with her daughter, said that they would not be getting the jeans and that she should change cause they were getting late. At this point I was furious. I went over there and talked with the mother and told her about the quality of the jeans, and popularity of the style the daughter had on and after much convincing I got her to agree to get her daughter the pair of jeans. After getting changed back into her own clothes the daughter comes up to me and says, "Thank you so much!"


The Indian culture is wonderful. It's filled with a great amount of history and is very rich in its traditions however, there are aspects to it that don't always sit well with me. I'm not saying all Indian families function this way, but coming from a family that does I could really understand where the poor girl was coming from. I don't care what religious background you are coming from, but no older sibling should have that much power over their younger siblings. It's the 21s century for crying out loud.... why are people still trying to make women inferior!?! I was so outraged that the mother didn't even care what the daughters opinion was. I was even more outraged that they daughter just stood there silently not saying anything, although I can't blame her because many many years ago I used to be that little girl. As she was leaving I wanted to tell her to stand up for her self, to not let her brother have that much control over her life and to most importantly explain to her parents that she is no different then her brother and should therefore be treated equally. Unfortunately, it was not my place to say those things to her. Who was I to her?  Just the lady that let her into a fitting room, but I feel like somewhere deep down she understood all those things without me having to say them to her. I'm not sure how it impacted her life but I know for me it was something I needed to experience. It was like watching my past unfold in front of me and it was so very humbling to know that my tiny gesture may have changed the course of this young girls path.

Always Stand up for yourself and what you believe in. Don't let anyone tell you other wise. Make the decisions that you feel are best for you, even if you fall at least you want blame anyone for the decision and you will never have to question yourself about it.

LIVE YOUR LIFE!