Geegpay Writing Challenge by Itoro Akinbamiyorin.

It was the last day of the 2019 GTCO festival. After hours of documenting the event in photographs which very few people would likely see, I still had a final task to photograph the runway show at 6pm.

Then I had to wriggle out of the crowd and traffic fast enough to make it to the pharmacy three streets from my home. Baba Khemist was the only one who sold my mother’s arthritis medication at prices we could afford, and she’d run out two days ago.

But that was still three hours away. In my current moments of pedal soreness, sour words began to whisper themselves around me again.

Is this really worth it?

Suddenly, a line began to form to my left for entry into a makeup Masterclass. Not very related to my line of work, but all I saw was a free hour-long seat. So I joined up.

The speaker, Sir James, began the session with an iridescent demonstration on his model, and then slipped comfortably into industry talk. He opened the floor wide to questions, and his response to one was an inspiring story of his journey to the top, which he concluded with a statement that struck me deeply.

“I’m grateful for how far I’ve come, but I’ll never really be satisfied.”

He was a man in an industry that was deemed feminine, who had battled racial biases, financial hardship, being forced to drop out, getting fired, working odd jobs, and a crippling identity crisis. Two decades later, he was one of the biggest names in his field and he still craved to soar higher.

So why wasn’t I, Amina, wanting the same things for myself?

My career struggles at 25 weren’t obstacles that could totally hinder me from greatness; Sir James’ story made me see that. And so with renewed passion and an ignited willingness to do everything I needed to, I gratefully shook hands with Sir James on my way out of the hall and mentally prepared myself to restart from that runway show by capturing some of the best photographs I’d ever taken.