Finding Light
Amina rested her head on the bus window, feeling the late evening sun kiss her face. It was her third trip to three photo studios today, and all three of them shared common ground on the issue of employing her as a photographer.
"You have something," they’d begin when she showed them her portfolio, “but I don’t think we have room for another photographer” or just plainly like the last studio, “this is not what we want, sorry” they often finished with.
Thinking about all the rejection she has received since wanting to pursue photography professionally, a tear threatened to escape, but she held it back.
Her reverie was interrupted by her phone vibrating in her bag. Seeing Mama Jamiu's caller ID, she knew it involved her mother.
"Hello, Mama Jamiu?" she answered, her heart racing.
"Come to the hospital, your mama just start to shake," Mama Jamiu said urgently.
Amina's heart sank. "Which hospital?"
"Alpha."
"I dey come."
She asked the bus driver to stop and took a bike back to the hospital. It was her mother's second stroke this month. Without money for medication, Amina felt helpless.
Arriving at the hospital, she learned her mother was temporarily stable but needed medication refills urgently.
As she passed through the hospital corridor, she spotted Fayo Kunmi, a renowned celebrity photographer. Intrigued, she approached him, her camera hanging on her neck.
"Fayo Kunmi?" she called.
They exchanged pleasantries, Amina told him of how she knew him and shared her struggles in pursuing photography when he asked about the camera on her neck.
Moved by her determination, Fayo recounted how he made it so far.
He finished off by telling her “If you really want to be a photographer, then never take no for an answer. Ever. Always find a way”.
Inspired by his words, Amina felt newfound confidence in her dreams of becoming a photographer and providing a better life for her mother.
