The blessings of positive influence

Not to long ago, I started my journey to acheive my goal. I have faced many challenges in my life and really wanted to do what made me happiest, creating art. Photography had always brought me joy. With the encouragement of my wonderful husband and my beautiful mother in law I took the plung. My first goal was acheived with the help of family in friends in reaching a goal of 50 likes on my facebook page in 2 weeks. My second was to reach 100 likes by May 1st.

On April 28th I hit 102 likes on facebook. The original goal had been set with my mother in law. I wanted so much to celebrate with her but she had past away the previous evening from a sudden heart attack.

(This is the very first photo I ever took of my mother in law the first time I meet her. It was taken with a little point and shoot camera.)

So with that piece of my heart aching I really wasn't in the celebrating mood. She was a huge inspiration and a very big motivator in the ways she talked with me for hours about doing what made me happy. She encouraged me with words that I could do this, I could reach my goals of being a successful photographer and bringing a photo to life.

This brings us to my recent encounters with a wonderful group of photographers I meet through networking. I found that I was so inspired by all of the positive feedback they give and by the ways they encourage the people they talk with. They don't post negative things about other photographers, they never are mean in the way they give advice, and they are always kind in how they encourage you to reach your goals. These types of people are really hard to find. I have been beyond blessed and have had so much encouragement and positive feedback from them in the past few weeks.

I have realized through these photographers, that yes, while I do not have my dear wonderful mother in law to talk to about the many endeavors I take on I still have others. I have my family, I have my husband, my close friends, and now I have them. I may have lost one person and the pain still comes in waves but I have realized that in losing I have gained more than I could ever imagine. With the encouragement of those around me I decide over the weekend to enter a photo contest. It was scary at first but I am proud of myself for doing it. I know that my mother in law would have wanted me to continue to reach for my dream and acheive all the goals I had set with her. I haven't only done the goals she and I set with networking on facebook but I have exceeded them. I now have over 1,000 fans on facebook and 900 of them I have gotten in the last month. For that I say thank you. Thank you to everyone who took the time to help someone reach their goal.

I am hoping to reach my next goal and yes it does have to do with the photo competition but it isn't to win. Winning would be nice I would love to be able to get some of the software that these wonderful people I have recently meet use. My goal is to learn. Learn from the experience so that I can continue to improve and grow to become the photographer I have set out to be.

The photo contest is being done by one of the wonderful people I have meet and many of the photographers I have meet are in it. Winning isn't everything it is the passion I see and the learning experience that I am truly blessed with. Thank you to all these wonderful women for helping me to overcome a loss in my life that nonw of them even knew about. It has taken me a lot to write this blog but I am thankful that I did for it actually has helped me to understand how lucky I am to have so many positive influences in my life.