when life gives you lemons...

do you make lemonade or you make orange juice?

This was put forth by my 13 year old sister. and she got me thinking.

If the phrase was "when life gives you lemons, you make lemonades", it will mean, you just turn something sour into something sweet and is a lot bearable. If it was "when life gives you lemonades. you make orange juice", it would mean.. something sour that is presented to you, push it aside, take something else and make something totally different out of it but sweet at the same time.

so which one is true?

i guess it depends on what you want to believe. i mean, if you are presented with lemons, it's kinda ridiculous for it to magically turn into oranges right? so, logically, the first phrase would be correct. But the second one could also be something positive if you can understand it.

If somebody were to tell me, when life gives you lemons, you make orange juice, it would simply mean to abandon all negativity and find something positive. If you have to start, why not start with abandoning all those negative thoughts and move on to finding some positive things around it. It's never easy, but with effort, surely you will be able to build yourself up again. If you still fail, at least you failed knowing that whatever you've done, they are not without effort.

In that sense, the second phrase would mean to put more effort into life in seeking something new instead of working with what you already have as suggested in the first phrase. Either way, both are true. They are the kinds of things that keeps you going when you feel like there's nothing more to give. when the former has been used up, you take up the latter and strive on that.

There are no right or wrong in anything. It's just how you see things. You can choose to make it turn you down or you can also choose to help you build yourself up again.