I would like to talk about a friend of mine. She is a transgender person, and she is originally from Ecuador. Her interaction with two different societies has made the difference in her professional and academic life. She is an engineer, and she is currently pursuing a master in statistics.  My friend is a very lovely and smart person. She has faced much persecution, age and job discrimination because of her gender and age issues, but she has a good attitude toward the life and people around her. Four year ago she got sex reassignment surgery and from a man to woman. After this fact happened, she faced a lack of alternatives and unequal treatment in her job environment in her original country, Ecuador.

            This  picture is just from the internet and her picture is public. She is not my friend, but she is a transgerder person as well. I just using this image as a sample for the homework.  Her name is Amanda Simpson. She is a· Program Manager, Engineer  and Transgender Advocate

  I met my friend 8 years ago in the Dominic Republic, on vacation trip, and since that day, she has become my best friend and life adviser. We meet once a week and spend some time talking together about her experiences and life at the senior center in my community. On some occasions, she makes me laugh with her stories and on others days makes me cry. She started telling me about the great decision that changed her social and professional life. Today, I got her permission to share part of her story.

     One day she got tired of the maltreatment and abuse in her work environment and the isolation she was suffering in Ecuador society due to her transgender status, so she decided to ask for asylum in the States. She was granted the asylum status, and after three years she became permanent resident in America. Even though she received a lot support from friends and the government, her life transition here was not easy. She had to start all over again with her professional life. First, she started looking for a job in a very actively manner, but her language, foreign education, lack of good references and health disadvantages were an obstacle at the beginning. The possibility of getting a good job with good medical insurance was low. She realized that she had to go back to school and improve her English and professional career in order to get a job.

     She was not young any more, but her commitment to herself and her strong spirit helped her to achieve her goals. After she learned English and updated her professional license to work in the States, she got a job with low wages, but with fair medical health benefits. It let her survive and rent a small apartment for four years. However, few years ago, her economic situation changed, and she is facing huge social challenges because of her gender and age now. Also, she lost her job two years ago. Despite her current situation, she is an actively learning and is trying to get a new job. Sometimes she tells me that she does not have the same energy she had five years ago to continue with this hard life, and she feels fear about the age discrimination at her work environment, because she is older than many other younger people who are also waiting for new job opportunities in these hard economic times. She has gotten a little depressed in the last six months, because she has to wear a male clothe for her new job interviews. She said to me that, ¨I have to wear male’s clothes because some interviewers see me as something strange when I use make up on my face and wear shoes of heels¨. She said ¨ I have not been lucky in finding a job, and I cannot sleep well at nights because my bills do not stop coming¨. Despite of all her life challenges, she still studying and getting more academic knowledge. She is still trying to get a new job, and she is doing her best to face her gender and age issues, but she is currently facing much social age issues, and job struggles and her life is not easy at all.