Just Put Your Mind To It

It all started when I was fourteen years old.  I wanted to take over my mother's lemonade stand at the Blue Hill Fair and make some money to call my own.  I had never had an actual job before, and I wasn't really sure if I would be mature enough to handle it on my own.  One day I asked my mom if she would let me work the booth the summer into my freshman year of high school.  I was so excited when she said I could, although I was nervous because I had never really done anything like that before.  I never knew how complicated it could be to work five days out of the year, and this is why.

First off, I started out borrowing money from my family because the supplies I needed were a lot more expensive than I ever thought it would be.  The lemons were over fifty dollars for a case, and I had to buy lot's of sugar, shaking containers, and I even had to pay to rent a spot at the fairgrounds.  I was hundreds of dollars out before I had even made anything.  I was scared that I wouldn't end up making enough money to pay my family back because it was a new experience and I felt like not many people would be interested in buying lemonade from a teenager.  I was wrong.

The first day of the fair had finally come, and I was more excited than ever before.  The thought of running something all by myself was a feeling I had never felt in my life.  A few hours had passed and I had only sold three lemonades.  I was devastated.  I thought for sure that I wouldn't be selling many lemonades at all because at that rate I was only selling one per hour.  My grandparents had a seafood booth right next to mine, and their booth was one of the most popular booths at the fair.  They kept reassuring me that business would be a lot better the next day, but I didn't really believe them.  They were right.

The second day came along and at about three in the afternoon I started getting more business than I could handle.  Believe it or not, I had to call my cousin to come help me because I was having trouble keeping up.  I had an amazing time interacting with all of the people and hearing how much they enjoyed my lemonade made me feel so happy.  The last day of the fair, bracelet day, was the best day I had because people were pouring in like no tomorrow.  I was so excited to have had such a great outcome and all my worries were down the drain.  I ended up making a lot more money than I could have imagined for a five day run at the Blue Hill Fair.  This experience taught me to never give up even when I feel like things won't get better.  Because they do.