When life throws you lemons,
and sometimes it’s hard to make lemonade out of them.
The pixelated “payment received” notification mocked me from my phone screen.
“Creatives,” they said, “get paid handsomely, travel the world, and win awards.”
Here I was, in my tiny apartment, staring at another underpaid invoice in Nigerian Naira, from my demanding middleman.
My name is Amina, 25 years old, with a heavy weight of responsibilities on my shoulders and the unending disappointment in my career and in life. Like a normal youth, I had a dream. I wanted to become a photographer.
Instead, I am stuck as an assistant at one of the city’s biggest studios, enduring the meager pay and my boss’s constant criticisms and unrealistic expectations.
“I know I deserve better but who is to care for my ailing mother?”, I thought, heaving a sigh of hopelessness.
“We regret to inform you…”
This is the 30th rejection email in two months. “Is my boss right? Am I truly unemployable?” A defeated sigh escaped her lips, catching the attention of the woman entering the studio.
“But I can’t continue working here. I can’t”, I softly muttered, noticing a client before me.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Burke,” Amina stammered, surprised to see the renowned artist, the one whose vibrant landscapes adorned her bedroom wall, standing right there.
(Lilian Burke’s smile was as warm as the colors in her paintings.)
“Hello there. I couldn’t help but overhear. You were saying ‘I can’t’ — but trust me, you can. You can achieve anything you set your mind to. Life throws challenges our way, like lemons, but it’s up to us to turn them into something sweet, even if it takes time and effort.”
Amina felt a spark ignite within her, a renewed sense of purpose. “Perhaps”, she thought, staring at her camera, “it was time to stop waiting for opportunities and start creating them”.
