“There are so many twists and turns in life.” Susanna says, “and when life serves you a lemon, you will try to make the best lemonade there is.” She chuckles nervously while the camera-guy stares at her with confusion.

It is the night of the first live show. In a long flowing blue dress, seventeen-year-old Susanna Bigelow sits on a folding chair backstage, her heart pounding overtime. She takes several deep breaths. “You can do this,” she tells herself. “You’ve done this once before. You can do it again.”

She takes another deep breath and thinks back to the audition when she had belted out the Titanic theme – My Heart Will Go On. Though she couldn’t see, she could hear the crowd applauding and cheering and then when one of the judges asked her what she’d think if she were to perform at Radio City Music Hall, her jaw fell to the floor. “S-seriously?” She put her hand to her mouth and whispered with disbelief, “Oh my goodness.”

All her life, she thought because of her blindness, she wouldn’t be able to make anything of herself. Now she wonders, maybe this is my calling.

(194 words)

A Response for Sunday Photo Fiction.