Letters of Youth

THE WOMANEUVER

/ 11 April 2021

One aspect of nation-building rests on working engagement. A country that provides adequate jobs for its citizens signifies a strong range of employment. In return, citizens must be able to qualify themselves in respective appropriate career standards. Occupations that had drawn the line between sexes for sort of lengthy-time have no room in today’s period, as the known weak and stagnant sex are able to hit the road as hard as the other sex could, literally and figuratively.

Marissa, a Filipina, single mother of 2 children, breakthrough six-wheeler-and-14-foot-truck driver, and most notably, a strong woman who proves to the world that big trucks and steering wheels run no gender.

She has been featured in a television show where she has been able to tell the whole country or the world that maybe cars and trucks are men’s toys, it could be women’s tools to provide for their children, serve the community and achieve something a patriarchal region would say unachievable.

She drives a six-wheeler-long truck to deliver soda and other drinks to more than six barangays within their big place. It is in this job where she found an opportunity to support her two children alone and secure their living as a family. As the program interviewed individuals who know Marissa, one common compliment came before their mouths, it’s Marissa who is somebody that inspirational and bold who chooses to break the norm of having finite sex for driving big cars. Most remarkably, her employer Cayetano Reyes, a man, praised Marissa’s dedication and mentioned that her eagerness changes the idea of some who tag women as weak.

Marissa just like any other women who attempt to maneuver the world with their ability over their gender are the one who truly creates the scaffolding towards our country’s nation-building.  Years from now, it would not seem too outrageous anymore to see a woman seating in the driver’s seat as an individual like Marissa will surely normalize this new notion about women.