I’m Fiona and this is how creativity saved my life.

*January 2004 *

Week after week, we’d receive one rejection letter after another…

My parents were losing sleep…

They were smiling less and less…

And slowly but surely, they were losing hope…

It all started when my father lost his small clothing shop business in Albania during the 1999 financial crash.

And with no work to pay their bills, my parents were struggling to keep the roof over their heads…

And just when it was hard enough to put food on the table for my little brother…

My mom fell pregnant with me…

And just like that, they had a second child on the way…

It felt like the whole world was closing in on them…

But there was no time to catch their breath…

They had to act quickly if they wanted to give their kids a chance for a stable life.

And because of the urgent need for security pressing down their necks…

They moved to London a few months later.

They left everyone they knew behind and went to an unfamiliar country to give me and my brother a better life.

The problem was, they barely spoke any English…

And because they didn’t have anyone to help them…

The process of sorting their documents became a living nightmare…

The most difficult of all was when they tried to register me for nursery school.

For weeks my mom would stay up late filling application forms…

And after assessing us, they all responded with the same one-liner:

"We are sorry to inform you that Fiona’s application has been rejected due to a lack of documentation.”

I’ll never forget the look of sadness and disappointment on my mother's face…

After countless follow-up calls begging them to reconsider, she had one option left.

Out of desperation, she contacted a school recruitment agency to come to our flat and see if they could help us.

After months of stress & frustration, they finally arrived…

The second my parents heard the knocking, they hurried to open the door.

An elderly man and a woman entered.

I was 4 years old, doodling on a sheet of paper when I noticed someone standing behind me.

As I look up, I see a woman in her 50s with her jaw wide open staring at my drawing in disbelief.

“Oh my god! This is brilliant! You drew that?”

At the time, I was so focused on drawing flowers that I didn’t hear anyone approach me.

As I nodded at the lady, she couldn’t help but express how amazed she was through a deep and genuine smile…

She stood there frozen for a good 2 minutes just looking at my drawing in silent admiration.

I didn’t really understand what was happening at the time, so I just continued sketching.

A week later, I was woken up by my mother’s cheerful laughter…

“Fiona, you got accepted by one of the schools!”

“Look, the lady left a note for you…”

My mom translating in Albanian:

“Never give up on your dreams because you have the talent to back it up.”

Even at that age, hearing those words lit a fire inside me…

I quickly found myself drawing and painting more often…

And by the time I was 14, I was already playing around with graphics and logos!

A few years ago, I learned that the lady helped my parents with our documents in her own time just to make sure I got accepted.

Her act of kindness changed my life forever… just because of a silly drawing!

And this “silly drawing” is what led me to discover something I can’t live without…

Something we have in abundance when we’re younger…

Forget when we’re older…

And rush back into as we age…

Creativity.