"Self Respect....It's mine"

"Self-respect..It's mine", something we can possess and owe to ourself. We maybe rich or poor, that does not matter. I maybe poor but rich with self respect. One can have everything in this world like money, fame,cars and all the luxury....but missing one very important thing ..."self respect". It is not easy to possess self respect, we have to learn and earn it. We have to accept who we are as a person regardless of our nationality, culture, status and capabilities.
Often times we face challenges and trials in our daily lives. We have to make decisions and consider a lot of things around us may be our family, friends and even ourselves. Sometimes we forget to value what is important but those are the  things that makes who we are as a person. I remember of my father's personality, superior, authoritarian and domineering. Nothing is right about any of my decision during my teenage years because he believe that as long as I am living under his roof I will obey all the rules. But at that age, I have the sense of what I want to do and what I want to be. At times I snapped back at him just to voice my opinion and express what I feel which sometimes leads to an argument. I tend to raise my voice to stressed my point. But all I heard from him is simple and straight in a firm voice. He said, "do not disrespect me, that is all I've got..you can find new friends everyday but you can not find a father like me". "What a disgrace?", I said to myself. I turned around and felt so embarassed. In my quiet moments I realized that even though I know what I want I should not only think of me and myself. It is very unselfish for me not to consider my dad who is just concern of my decision. That I know he will be there in times of  failure or success.
In 1994, I am just new here in America. I have my strong accent, naive and very timid. That time, I just started to socialize with Americans and I met Charlie. My Burmese friend intoduced us to each other on her wedding. My first intuition is I do not think that he will be interested in me. Here it comes my fears..I am short, brown complexion, a pudgy nose and not fluent in English. That is right, I am trying to discriminate myself. But he made his first move, offered me a drink and a dance. Well amazingly I felt proud about it because there are a lots of blonde women in the party and he chosed to dance with me. Then it followed his second move. He invited me to watched a movie with my Burmese friend. "Joy Luck Club", a movie where an Asian girl and American boy fell in love with each other, showing their differences in terms of cultures and traditions. What a night mare just to remember from what I watched. I do not think I can handle that indifferences. I have to stop and think if should go on dating with him. I am scared that I will just fall out of love. But, I decided I can give it a try and maybe from there we will discover ourselves. We spent a lot of times knowing and adjusting to each other. We learned and adopted each other's culture with open mind. Now, we are married and I am so happy we found each other. We might have a lot of differences but we have only one heart and one mind combined as a couple. Each one of us  have that love and respect for ourselves and be able to share with one another.
Everyone are specially created by god. Each one of us are  different in so many ways but that is what makes us unique as a person. We have something that is deep within us, not stolen, not borrowed and not bought. "Self-respect...it is mine". Something that I can be proud of, I can carry it everywhere I go, it is my wealth, my happiness and my freedom. Nobody can take it away from me...it is mine.