Today marks my two-year anniversary working at the company where I currently do. It has certainly been full of ups and downs, even ones that I would never have expected if you asked me to predict what would happen in the two years that have passed. I’ve likely met the smartest and most dedicated colleagues I’ve ever known here, some I would even consider “friends.” I somehow became the top performing person on my team last year and am on my way to our President’s Club trip in early May. Financially, I’m doing the best I ever have in my life.

Yet, despite all of those things, the things I’ve always known deep down will continue to be true: I’m still Asian and still a woman, and people will always see that first, particularly in a white-male dominated environment, where when women succeed, they are almost always white, and when they are not, frankly, they’ve had a mix of luck and politics on their side. And in the rat race, even when you are winning as they say, you are still a pathetic rat in the end.