Fighter

"The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for."

Maureen Dowd

The fighting spirit in me wasn't always ignited. When I was younger I was bullied and I could never stand up for myself. All I could ever do was cry. So my experience of being on the receiving end of injustices ignited the fighting spirit in me. 

You see, I don't know if it was always in me and I just didn't know it or if it is something I acquired over the years. I am not certain if I inherited it from one or both of my biological parents or if I inherited from my mom (aunt). All I know is that I fight battles that aren't even mine at times.

I just can't stand people not being treated fairly. I can't accept people taking advantage of those who can't defend  themselves (not defending oneself does not mean that you are weak). It just says that people fight battles differently. Some, like Martin Luther King, will go out to the streets and speak out. And others, like Rosa Parks, will simply take a seat that she was prohibited from sitting on. 

Recently my friend, co-worker, reader and great supporter, Tatenda, was telling me that she fights quietly. I will give you the whole story later. So often we assume that people that don't speak out or don't take to the streets are weak and afraid. But I have known for a while that there are different ways to fight different battles and even different ways to fight the same battle.

There is a saying that if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. My fighting years started in college where I often saw a lot of injustice. I fought with my lecturers, strangers and even the college management.

I remember the one time my friends and I went out to Panarottis. It was a Thursday and we were there for the eat as much as you want special. We got to the restaurant and stood in line behind the last people we found standing in the line. There were two women taking photos on the other side outside the restaurant. The line got longer behind us. As our turn to enter the restaurant got closer, the ladies who were taking pictures earlier and 5 other people came to stand in line in front of us (my friends and I). My one friend politely told them the the line was at the back. One gentleman reudely replied saying that they were standing in the line before. None of the people who were in front of us could attest to that. So an argument between me and the gentleman broke out. Long story short, my friends convinced me to let them go ahead of us (after a good 10 minutes of arguing). Since the restaurant was full one of the managers was walking down the line asking how many people were in each group. We entered the restaurant before the group of seven people and it felt like a victory for me.

I don't always win my battles. I have fought so many losing battles and currently I am fighting losing battles daily at work. I work for a company that cares more about making money than it cares about its employees. There is no month where there isn't a problem or an outrageous demand. The one that aggravates me the most is payroll. Every single month lots of people are not paid for the work they put in. 

One of my co-workers had had enough. She sent a message on the WhatsApp group asking to be paid the hours she had worked for. Ooooh a revolution, a battle, a reason to fight against injustice. That is just what I like. As per usual the management on the group ignored her message. Another co-worker also raised her concerns she was also not acknowledged. Seeing this I sent a message saying that we cannot have payroll query every single month. We need to identify the problem and solve it it instead of ignoring the symptoms. We finally got a response being told that that was not the platform for our concerns that we should email the payroll lady. I responded based on my personal experience that she does not reply to our emails and asked the operations manager if she would take care of the matter since she is now aware of it. Long story short, the two ladies mentioned above received emails from payroll and had their hours calculated. Indeed there was money missing from their payslips. We will probably have payroll queries next month again.

This was a little victory. Not the victory I wanted but still a victory. Even when I lose a battle I don't give up. I keep fighting. It is good to celebrate the little victories and not be discouraged by losses. We can't win all the time. Once you have lost, do an analysis of what you can do better. Strategize, plan and prepare. You should also know when a fight is not necessary. I have stepped away from so many fights because I knew they weren't necessary. If you are always fighting you won't have time to regain your strength and no weak army can win the war.

What's important is to know what you are fighting for. Know where you stand and understand why it is worth fighting. There will always be battles so you need to learn to fight in different ways and learn to use different weapons. You can't be a one trick man because the enemy will defeat you before you attack if all you have is one trick. 

So many of us need to learn to stand up for ourselves, to fight for our rights and to fight right. Fighters arise, take what is rightfully yours and don't let anybody say your way of fighting is wrong. Fighters be wise, wisdom leads to victory or lessons learned.