Real Talk with Mayra

In a recent post, I mentioned that I work for the railroad.  I am an engineer, a locomotive engineer as of right now and have been for the last six years.  I didn't start out that way on the railroad when I first started working in the railroad industry, I started out in Mechanical's corporate offices.  I was the first female manager to work among men at that level.  My job there was to take the old antiquated ways of paper and put everything electronic, I created databases, systems, even a handheld device for inspections.  I will be honest out of all the departments I have worked here, this was by far, my favorite.  I learned a lot from the men I worked with.  Before starting this job, I had always worked private sector, so this was very new to me, and I knew nothing about transportation, nothing about trains, I did, however, know a lot about databases, systems, just about any software you could throw at me, as well as business processes.  So com...

Today was Mother's Day and not only did I get beautiful cards from my daughters, but I also got one from one of my daughter's best friend.  But what was even more special all of them sort of wrote the same message, which, was unbelievably special to me.  All of them thanked me for being the person that inspired them the most. Here  I am with doubt in my heart on whether I'm a good mother, good person, trying to always make the right choices, and out of nowhere my daughters all send me the same message, none of them talking to each other about what they might have to say and one lives thousands of miles away, yet they all had the same thing to say.  I am so grateful for all the love they have for me, this journey I'm going through right now makes it all worth it. I, myself spent some time with my mother, and believe me when I say I Love my mother, but we have never really been close.  I would never disrespect or ever say anything to hurt my mother, but I've k...

For those of you who don't know, I'm a single mother of three daughters and for the most part, I've protected yet taught them to be very independent.  But I am a mother so my motherly instincts always are in full effect.  Recently, my oldest daughter came home to tell me that a situation happened at work and although I wanted to right away rescue her, I had to step back and see how things played out. She works for a gym part-time until she goes back to school.   Her immediate supervisor is a man, slightly older than her but not by much.  Whenever he is speaking to her, he stands in her personal space, and more than often makes cruel inappropriate comments to her.  After maybe a dozen times of him being inappropriate with her, she finally speaks to her district manager in regards to what is going on and how he is making her feel.  Now note I've taught my daughter's to know the difference between someone doing something and not being aware of it, so to...

Today I am going to talk about the men I work with and I use the word men loosely.  In case you're not aware I am a female working in an industry of men and not just any men but men that feel women don't belong here.  I am an engineer in the railroad, and if you think it's 2019 and things have really changed, THINK AGAIN!   I will give you a little background so you can see the whole picture.  I came from the private sector to work in a government agency.  I started out as management but even there you really couldn't show you had any kind of brains.  I had my cheerleaders and my haters, but at least I didn't go through some of the things I'm going to share with you here today. I've been on the non-management side of things for six years now, I've worked as a brakeman, conductor, yardmaster and for the last five years an engineer.  I like what I do for a living but I don't Love what I do for a living and yes there is a huge difference between the...

It is not often a parent can say their children inspire them, as a single mother I can admit that my children inspire me.  They inspire me to be better, to listen and to Dream Big. How many times have you spoken to your children, to give them encouragement, hope, or even just saying to them "Anything you want, you can have, you just have to want it and have Faith in yourself; just to think to yourself; are they even listening, or you may even feel that you're bothering them with the things you do say to them. Last year, well less than nine months ago to be exact I've learned a lot from my daughter #2, as I like to call her because she's my middle child.  In case your wondering they all have numbers and don't worry that number ends at three.  Well back to daughter #2, she proved to me that children do listen.  She graduated high school and was accepted to eight universities including her first choice and she is now wrapping up her freshman year in New York City....