Once upon a time, Fatima had a friend called Aminata, and there was almost nothing Aminata did that didn't make Fatima say "easy peasy".
When Aminata started baking and people began ordering her cakes, Fatima would look at the pictures and say,“Honestly, I don't know why people make such a big deal out of baking. I can do that too.”
Aminata started advertising her little business consistently, few years later;
Aminata's little business started growing, Fatima shaked her head while saying, “She must just be lucky.”
Aminata never took offense.
She knew something Fatima didn't.
People often see the harvest and forget there was a planting season, Aminata whispered to herself.
One weekend, Fatima decided she was going to try baking.
She had watched Aminata do it countless times.
She had seen the mixing, the decorating, the beautiful finished cakes and the happy customers.
So she thought she knew everything she needed to know.
“This should be easy peasy,” Fatima told herself.
Day one was exciting.
She followed the instructions, took pictures and proudly showed her first attempt to Aminata.
“It doesn't look bad,” Aminata said with a smile.
Fatima smiled proudly.
“I told you. I'm a natural.”
Day two wasn't as smooth.
Her cake didn't rise properly.
She blamed the oven.
Day three was worse.
The icing refused to cooperate.
She tried again and again.
By the fourth attempt, Fatima was standing in her kitchen, staring at a cake that looked nothing like the beautiful ones she had admired online.
She became frustrated.
“I don't understand!” she exclaimed.
“I've seen Aminata do this so many times. Why is this so difficult?” "why is mine different"? She kept asking herself.
And then, something clicked.
She had only been watching the easy part.
She had never seen Aminata's failed cakes.
She hadn't seen the first cake Aminata burnt.
She didn't know how many recipes she had tried before finding the right one.
She didn't know about the nights Aminata stayed awake learning.
She didn't know how much money she had lost experimenting.
She didn't know how many times Aminata had wanted to give up.
Fatima had only seen the beautiful cakes that came after all the struggle.
The next day, she rushed to Aminata's house.
“Aminata,” she said quietly, “how long did it take you to become this good?”
Aminata smiled.
“Longer than you think.”
Fatima gave a faint smile.
“I honestly thought it was easy for you.”Said Fatima.
“It wasn't,” Aminata replied. “You just didn't see the difficult part.”
Those words stayed with Fatima.
She began thinking about all the people she had judged before.
The woman whose business was thriving.
The man who seemed to have his life together.
The writer whose posts were always getting attention.
The friend who seemed to achieve everything effortlessly.
How many of them had struggled silently?
How many failures had happened before the success she could see?
How many times had they wanted to quit?
Fatima realized she had been comparing her beginning to someone else's middle.
And that was never a fair comparison.
From that day, whenever she saw someone succeeding, she stopped saying, “Easy peasy.”
Instead, she started asking herself:
“What did this person have to go through before I saw this result?”
Because sometimes, what looks like luck is years of preparation.
What looks effortless is years of practice.
And what looks like someone “having it easy” may simply be someone who has become so good at handling the difficult parts that you no longer see them.
So the next time you find yourself looking at someone's achievement and thinking,
“It must be easy for them…”
Pause.
You may only be looking at the finished chapter.
You may not have seen the tears, mistakes, disappointments, sleepless nights, failed attempts and countless times they had to start again.
Because sometimes…
“Easy peasy” is just hard work that has finally become invisible.
Fatima learnt a lesson that stayed with her forever.