My parents decided to immigrate to Canada. I was on 8^th grade when I bid goodbyes to my childhood friends. I did not know what to expect. New country, new school, new friends. Vancouver, Canada is such a diverse city. Several numbers of nationalities live there: Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Australian, and more. The transition when I moved was smooth. I have met new friends in school, mostly Filipinos. In addition, I made sure that even though English is spoken everywhere, I speak Filipino when I am at home. I feel like even though I am a naturalized Canadian, I will always be a Filipino. That is an essential part of my identity that I do not want to disregard. 

          I was raised in a Catholic home. As a matter of fact, more than 86% of the population in the Philippines is Roman Catholic. I remember I would attend all church occurrence, even attending mass on Wednesdays. A sister from a local church goes to our classroom and teach Catechism. We were taught the rosary, the Saints and more. When I moved to Canada, I learned about other faiths. Some people don’t even have one, yet they say they believe that there is something out there. My husband is Pentecostal Christian. Same as me, born and raised. I do not follow some of his beliefs, and vice versa. However, I fathom to be respectful of one’s faith, especially his. Although religion is a big part of my identity, there are some so called ‘rules’ that I consider otherwise. I believe that a person can be true to him/herself by being open without limitations. I think that if someone has his/her own gender preference, that it should not be condemned by another person. I believe that everyone should be equal when it comes to gender preference because it is a huge part of their identity. If a member of LGBTQ cannot fully express his/her choice, he/she is not being ‘real’. And I feel for them. Sometimes, I think that we live in a cruel society and that it’s only black and white. 

          In my opinion, being authentic is being able to fully express myself without stepping on anyone’s shoes. If I need to pretend just to please others, that is not myself. That is someone putting a mask on and when no one’s around, will just take it off. I was at a friend’s house last weekend when he started to discuss about someone he knows, who he thinks is being two-faced. He mentioned that he does everything to appease his girlfriend’s family, yet he always mentions something bad about that said family when they’re not around. I believe that is unacceptable. Being fake just to impress other people is something that no one should do.          

“The Tourists love me, too.” You sound whiny, but you can’t help it. There’s a sinking feeling in your gut that tells you this is bad, bad, bad.

“You’re good, Jesse. But nobody knows anything about Pueblo Indians, so all you’ve got is that TV shit. This guy, he’s …” Boss snaps his fingers, trying to conjure the word.

“Authentic?” A whisper.

            I browsed through the US Citizenship checklist. Although I am not a US citizen, I made comparison to my Canadian citizenship. There are many perks of being a citizen of North America. Once you have the ‘blue passport’, you basically have access to variety of opportunities. Since I have wanted to travel to different countries, having that blue passport gives me entry with little to no restriction to explore the countries I’d like to visit. I qualify to receive health insurance and financial assistance to support my education. Majority of the things that are on the checklist applies to me because Canada and the US offer similar opportunities.

I did not know what Cisgender meant because it is not something I hear on a regular basis. I read the brief definition of it as being identified as the gender that matches the person assigned at birth. Well, I was born with female organs, and my gender is female so that makes me a cisgender. I have never had to tell anyone what my gender is. However, some things on the checklist made me think, “Huh?”. One example is that “I am not considered mentally ill in terms of expressing my identity”. Although I am “cisgender”/heterosexual, I get disappointed every time someone says that members of LGBTQ have mental illness and that the confusion when it comes to their gender is temporary. Secondly, when I was reading the list, I came across to “I am not expected to explain to friends, family or strangers what it means to be my gender.” I think no one should ever have to do that. I do not owe any explanation to anybody when it comes to my gender. It is my part of my identity, and nobody can take that away from me.

Although the White Privilege Checklist does not apply to me, I read it out of curiosity. I personally do not think the checklist should not be a checklist to begin with. Everyone should be treated equal. I do not like where there is still a division based on skin color. I remember years ago, I was waiting for the elevator at a hotel. A black woman was also waiting, and when the elevator door opened, there was a white lady inside, looked at the lady beside me from head to toe. I would never forget that. In the modern world that we live in today, I still cannot believe that this kind of act still exists. I do not like discrimination whether when it comes to race, color, gender etc. Why can’t everyone respect one another when it comes to their identity?