The question of the week from my friends, family, and coworkers has undoubtedly been:
Have you found out about the SOAR! scholarship yet? Did you win?
The short answer is the winners were announced last night and no I did not “win”.
But the answer I should be giving runs so much longer, deeper, and is much more meaningful so tonight I give you the full scoop on what this experience has meant and done for me.
When I sat down only 3 short weeks ago to work on my SOAR! video I did not think I would win. For all I knew this was going to be the American Idol of photography (I actually think it is!) and I went in knowing my shot at fame and fortune was probably slim to none. I almost did not apply for that very reason. I didn’t think I had the “it factor” the judges were be looking for. But if you never try you’ll never know so I did it. I told my story, gave it my best shot, and hit the submit button sending away my video and application. I put myself out there. And so did 260+ other woman. All just as amazing, open, and deserving as me.
Then, an awesome thing happened, a community was built. And I quickly was so proud I had applied. I started to see the true benefits from applying:
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would not have had 6 pages of family and friend comments on my video cheering me on and encouraging me to live my dreams.
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would not have had those same people publicly praising and affirming my work and my dreams.
- If I didn’t attempt SOAR! I would not have had the opportunity to be a part of a rich community of SOAR! sisters from across the globe with the same passion and desire as me.
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would not have met the multiple SOAR! sisters who somehow found the time and energy to watch EVERY video entry and leave a comment of support. (way to go! and thank you!)
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would not have had such a motivation and reason to restart my 365 project. Now we have a SOAR! group on flickr of 30 of us (and growing) committed to working our craft and taking at least 1 photo per day for an entire year.
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would not have been able to be a part of a 3 hour SOAR! Skype party where we all were nervously and excitedly awaiting results amongst a myriad of technical difficulties.
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would never have chatted it up with a fellow SOAR! sister who will also be attending the LAUNCH workshop with me in February. It’s such a relief that I’ll know someone there already.
- If I didn’t attempt to SOAR! I would not have received over 20 IMs and text messages last night from family and friends also anticipating the final results with support and excitement.
I may not have won the “grand prize” but I firmly believe that all of us who entered this competition have won something. New friendships. Networking. Encouragement. Ideas. Support. As cheesy as that sounds its true. And no matter what its because of all of you all that I know I can still do great things this year. With MeRa’s new SOARority assignment website and forum, classes, workshops, and support from my family, friends, and SOAR! sisters I am still fully confident that this year will be one of the best yet.
Watch out everyone, it is still time for me to SOAR!