Log0042 | Issa - How You Make It

My first child, a daughter, was not even 5 days old. I was still trying to figure out how to do all this. Tiptoeing around the condo before sunrise I collected all my things to head to the office. Laptop, lunch, bag and book. A few pencils to draw and a sketchbook. 

Heading outside I called a Lyft because I couldn’t leave my wife without the car. Thick hazy fog hung in the air. I couldn’t see anything; which way to go, what to do, or how far it would be. Before long a Lincoln spun a u-turn in front of me and Issa called my name. 

I hopped in and quickly took out my AirPods. He wanted to talk and I was curious enough to listen. Issa was from Kenya. He had five kids and kept up two jobs. He started early each morning so that he could be home by the afternoon to hang out with his children. For work Issa would browse the internet for cracked iPhones, go pick them up, then send them all back to Kenya where his dad would on-sell them. In between phone pickups he’d do ridesharing. 6 a.m. to 1. Bouncing between these two jobs, that’s how he found me. 

His wife, also Kenyan, had been in the States for twenty years. She was the stay-at-home mum. She ran things while he was out on his phone runs. But five kids, damn. I was curious how he pieced it together. I told him; I had just had my first child, how did he make it work, San Diego’s so expensive, where did he find the time. 

“It’s not easy but it’s not hard. Life is how you make it,” he explained. “If you put bad energy into the world then you’re just making life hard for yourself. If you’re optimistic then good things will come to you.” He pulled up his keychain. On it was a pendant from each of his children - a name and a photo. Then a sixth pendant representing them all and their bond. 

I’d figure this all out, he said. He was confident.