The Positives of Life Through Many Ups and Downs by Atifa

The Positives of Life Through Many Ups and Downs by Atifa - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

Throughout my years of high school, I have learned numerous lessons. But there is one very important lesson that I have learned and has stuck with me. It was from one of my favorite teacher who taught me in cake decorating class, not a typical science or math class. This lesson was derived from her experiences and the trials and tribulations she went through in life.
Her journey began with her expressing the sad news of her father being shot in the shoulder, close to the spine. This made him paralyzed and wasn’t able to move his hand which made it difficult for him to take care of himself. Her father was very dear to her and so according to his wishes, she got married to a ‘well educated’ husband. It happen to be that all the education was falsified and he didn’t study much after he failed a few classes. She insisted him to go back to school in order for them to live happily and peacefully together, but after numerous attempts it failed and they were divorced.
She moved back with her father to gather herself, and shortly after was married again. This time her husband was a divorcee who had loved her for a long time, so she gave him a chance. They both had a past where their partners deceived them in some sense, so they had a commonality to bond over. After their marriage, the husband decided to transfer everything on her name, but while doing so he took out loans on her name and used her credit. She was under the impression that he’s the perfect man and her act of giving in would make their bond stronger.However a few months later she got pregnant, but he wasn’t so fond of it so he told her to abort the baby. She wanted to keep the new life that was brought to her. She didn’t want to abort her child. And that is where the problems started. She finally found out that the reason her husband wanted to abort the baby was because he was a drug addict. He couldn’t afford to feed another mouth. Her husband was arrested multiple times in the act of drug deals and other illegal activities.

She sold all of her gold to bail her husband out of jail. However, he would not get off the drugs and they kept getting into arguments. There was no common base between them anymore. She separated from him to get some space and think it through. She wanted to make it work for herself, for them, and most importantly, for the baby. She gave it all, but it didn’t work out and he divorced her 10 days after the baby was born.

She had to nurture a child without a father as an uneducated single mother. She tried to leave everything in the past and went back to school to start over for the sake of her child. She took all that negative energy and transferred it into positivity and became the best at what she did. She attended cake decorating and art classes to quickly excel and become an expert. She became so good that she started her own business and became a professional in this field. Her business was booming so much that it came to a point that she didn’t have the capacity to take anymore orders. Her skill and reputation was known amongst everyone because of which she had huge wait lists. She may have taught me to decorate cakes, but I believe on the way there she ended up teaching me something more significant which I’ll hold on to my whole life. She taught me that no matter where life takes you, it may not be as it seems. There will be times it will feel like it’s the best thing or it may feel it’s the worst, but in essence it may be the opposite. So don’t judge the scenario and circumstances by its appearance, but really dig deeper to get the true feeling of it. She thought that her divorces would be the end of her and she would not be able to give her son all the things that he may want. However, the divorce was the best thing for her as it made her strong and independent to take care of her son and give him the best of this world, as he deserves. Life has many ups and downs, but we have to strap ourselves in and hope for the best because something much better is in store for us at the end of this ride. It will never go as we plan, but we should always brace it and look for the positivity at every step of our life because our outlook on life is what will keep us happy, not necessarily the circumstances. My teacher says that she has never been happier than she is now and I can attest to it as I use to see her every day stress free, living her life.