This is Dr. K’s iconic quote from the TV show, This Is Us. If you have not watched the first couple of episodes, be warned, there are spoilers ahead!

Jack, a very enthusiastic and optimistic father-to-be, has just come out of his wife’s delivery room where she gave birth to triplets, of who, one didn’t survive. Dr. K takes a seat next to him and narrates his life story – how his wife losing their first child propelled him to become an obstetrician, enabling him to save hundreds of other babies. And then he proceeds to give him this memorable life lesson.

Jack realizes the lesson that same day when he comes across a third baby lying next to his own kids in the NICU. The infant had been brought in by a firefighter who had found him left in a blanket outside the fire station. Jack came to the hospital that day vowing to take three babies home and he keeps his promise. It is a heart warming depiction of loss, love and hope.

When life throws hardships at us, it is not immediately clear how we can take control. We have to look for it. By stepping out of our own misery, empathising and most importantly, searching for purpose. That is how you make the sourest lemons into something resembling lemonade.