The Jamaican Student: Welcome To America

The Real World

Jeminye

I've never experienced racism before, so I was a bit taken aback at how cruel those men were with their words.

We really live in a fucked up world.

I got back to the office and continued to do all the entries Mr Rodriguez gave me to enter. As I began to do my last entry, the elevator dinged, and out came Brayden's Father Robert, his friend and Brayden.

Looking fine as ever in a grey business suit.

His eyes roamed across the room as if searching for something or someone.

Then his eyes found mine.

I've never seen an owner visit their business so often, the thought of him only coming to see me went as quick as it came.

I quickly looked away, I don't think I can handle anymore gossip.

"Listen up, I would like all my interns to meet me and these gentlemen as I'm sure most of you if not all recognize, in the conference room". Miss Phillips announced.

We all gathered in the conference room wondering what's this sudden gathering for, everyone was issued pens and 2 pieces of paper each.

What is going on, I hate being unprepared was there an exam I wasn't aware of?.

I hope not.

"Hello everyone I'm  Mr Campbell, I know you're probably wondering why the sudden gathering".

Took the words right out of my thoughts.

"Every year this firm gets lucky with one very special accountant, the one that does more than they're given, the one that gets the most clients, the one that knows more than their superiors".

"You get the point, 2 years ago Ms Phillips was a regular intern like yourselves, but she showed so much potential and made an impact in such a short amount of time".

To think she acts so entitled yet it was not so long ago that she was in our shoes.

"And as you can see she is now the General Manager of this firm", he said referring to Miss oversized lips.

I saw Brayden rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Period, see I knew I liked him.

Now Mr Williams stepped forward to speak.

"Thank you Mr Campbell, now we normally put you guys to the test yes I'm sure you are all intelligent individuals, however it takes an effortless ability to do what we do and do it well".

"It's one thing to be good at your job and another to exceed expectations".

"The first test we gave a selected few was to accompany a supervisor to a clients home to talk about their books, first up rebecca tell us what you learned".

Wait.

That was a test?.

Great, what am I suppose to say oh hey our client hates black people?

"To be honest sir, I learned that sometimes you have to pretend and I know that might sound bad at first but often times clients freak out or blame you for situations you have no control over so it's our job to put aside however we may feel and apologize and come up with a solution to a problem we didn't create", rebecca said.

Good answer, but there's so much more to learn than how to conceal one's distaste for a client it's common knowledge that we aren't always going to like who we work with.

But I'd like to know more about the fine print of accounting maybe it's just me being a nerd, but I expected to hear more details.

"So you learnt patience okay next", Mr Williams said clearly not impressed and quite frankly I don't blame him.