Leyla was very ambitious. She wanted to escape her narrow world from a young age. Away from the three big, crude brothers who beat each other regularly. Away from the narrow, poor conditions where the money only lasted for the most basic necessities and where there was never anything left-over. She was ashamed of the worn out, inherited clothes, for the way things were. Also, because she barely ever could drive anywhere with the other kids from her class because she didn’t have the money to pay for the entry tickets.
Her mom was a housewife and earnt a little extra through the cleaning work she undertook for others. She sometimes took Leyla with her to help her out. Leyla was astonished as to how it looked in the richer households. Leyla understood, that she had to make her own money. As she was very good at school and learnt easily, she got the recommendation to go to college. Leyla quickly started to tutor students to be able to pay for herself. Leyla was also the first one of her big family who went to university. She studied business and worked up to 50% at the same time. It was hard but necessary.
In the working world she went up the career ladder quickly and started to earn well. She was very successful. She didn’t however have the ‘stable smell’ that the other managers had. She also lacked the network which could have taken her to better positions.
Leyla decided against a family and for a career. She made it. But it didn’t bring her happiness. She felt strange in both worlds. She didn’t want to be part of the world in which her brothers and parents lived and in the working world she felt foreign her whole life and she felt that she didn’t belong to it.
Only late on did she realise that it isn’t that easy to burst the barrier and that hard work alone isn’t enough.
Michaela Merz 