From tangerines to triumph: The K-Drama lessons on turning challenges into opportunities

Maybe you were expecting lemons, but you got tangerines.

There are a few lessons to be learnt from When Life Gives You Tangerines— a profound, emotionally rich show about a family, spanning three generations. The title itself, is a clever spin on the normal saying ‘When life gives you lemons…’…which means, when the sour, unpleasant challenges and hurdles of life come your way, make lemonade, a cooling, refreshing drink.

Yet, the saying almost borders on cliche now. You’ll probably get annoyed with someone spewing that, or you’ll just want to throw Phil Dunphy from Modern Family’s sitcom back at them: When life gives you lemonade, make lemons, and life will be like what?

But, then there are tangerines. And there’s so much to do with these small, sweet fruits that are flavourful. 

In short, sometimes life hands you unexpected gifts, and you can turn them into something to cherish, remember. A taste that will stay with you for a while.

That’s one lesson from tangerines. But residents of the UAE have even more to offer.

The sudden rush of unexpected flavours

Dubai-based Sunaina (name changed on request) remembers being particularly devastated, after she auditioned for a big play production in the city. She had rehearsed, worked hard for it—spent hours in fact, learning her lines. Yet, she wasn’t selected. It stung. “I had been a part of so many plays for the last few years, and I really wanted to be in this one. I started doubting my own abilities,” she recalls.

A few days later, she got a call from a friend, who pushed her to audition for another play—which was smaller in production, but the storyline was taut and brilliant, she vouched. “The rejection was still too heavy and I didn’t want to go at first. I thought this was a small outing, and nothing would come of it,” explains Sunaina. Finally, she decided to go.

She got the part, and moreover, it was a fulfilling experience. She was playing a character that she had never played before—one filled with cryptic nuance, and even morally grey. It was something refreshing, new and even nerve-wracking in her experience, but the good kind. “I felt such a sense of pride at our first performance,” she says. “Everyone clapped so hard.”

The bitterness about the earlier production had long receded. Life’s tangerines wasn’t so bad, after all.

As Marienne Kovalsky, an Abu Dhabi-based therapist and life coach explains, “It’s sometimes comfort to know that the curveballs life does offer, turn out to be small gifts in disguise. They’re not what you needed, but maybe, they’re just softer, richer and more enjoyable. It’s a comforting feeling to know that not everything need be a fight. Sometimes, we can really loosen our grip on rigid, society-driven expectations. And perhaps then, we can be delighted, when life does take a different route.”

Make something better 

If lemons are for lemonade, then tangerines are for other forms of comfort. Tea. Desserts. Festive drinks.

Abu Dhabi-based Janet Clarkson, an IT professional is content. She might not feel absolute passion about her work, but she doesn’t complain about it either: She finishes on time, returns to her husband and children, and gets to spend fun evenings with them playing board games, or outdoor sports like badminton and tennis. “These are the moments that I treasure the most. I didn’t have a family when growing up,” she explains. “My parents died young, and I spent my childhood and teenage years with different relatives, till I started working, moved here and got married. It was a new beginning.”

It’s a simple, yet peaceful life, finally. She has found the real home that she has been looking for, over the years. “I have a job. I have wonderful children, and a loving husband. I get to watch my kids grow up, play with them, and even pursue my own hobbies on the side like sketching, painting—something that I had loved, but couldn’t do before.”

Her husband kept encouraging her to continue artwork, and soon, she promises to be ready for her first exhibition. “So, when you talk about life’s tangerines. I think that I made a good dessert for myself,” she chuckles.

It’s all about perspective

Lemons, or tangerines? Sometimes—just sometimes, when we keep focusing on life’s lemons, we might miss out on the tangerines. As Kovalsky explains, “No doubt, life is full of painful challenges. We can’t ignore that. It can cripple us, exhaust us to the point that we’re unable to think straight. But I say, if there’s a chance—a window—that you can allow yourself to look at the more flavourful things of life that keep you going—then that's your tangerine."

Kovalsky, who separated from her husband several years ago, recalls how this lesson helped her. “I was bitter, angry and thought that life had punished me. It was only full of hardships and pain,” she remembers. It took her months to look outside the sour perspective—to see what she really had, and what she didn’t. “I had people who loved me. They were all by my side, supporting me through everything. I have the best family and friends, who allowed me to break apart and rebuild myself. Not many have that,” she says.

Slowly and carefully, she began to rebuild herself. Despite the pain and hurt, she was determined to heal and feel good again.

And perhaps that’s how we find the tangerines—hidden among the lemons, waiting to be discovered.