I’d always wanted to take photography in 4-H, but every year mom would talk me out of it, saying things like, “Mindy, you don’t know anything about photography.” Well, my 8th year, I finally signed up for it anyway. That first year I did well, but 2nd & 3rd year I got grand champion over about 300 projects. Funny, people told me I couldn’t win with just nature photos or my untypical silver posterboard.

I went on to get a photo published, and now many use my silver posterboard for their projects. Taking pictures made me happy, but I never thought I was any good. Turns out a lot of people love my work. Moral of the story? Doing what makes you happy will always work out.

Every random thing like that has improved my life somehow, despite my mom telling me I shouldn’t bother. I missed out on a lot of life by listening to her, and I’m often amazed at how different I am away from home. Literally, after doing some things, I say, “I can’t believe I just did that.” It’s the ultimate upper.

I’m becoming quite confident, and now, I want to do some traveling. A friend is studying in Vienna this fall, and I think flying out there solo for a visit would be excellent for me. Of course, my family laughed at the idea. I’m just in this phase where I want to challenge everything that I’d convinced myself was bad or impossible over the years. I’m not feeling too confident about my friend wanting me to visit, but I’ll figure something out. Come this fall, my work shall be done and I want to explore and find my life, or at least the next level.

I tturn 23 in 7 days. Maybe it’s just fear of commitment, but the last several years, I’ve had this feeling that my life may be short. I’ve been cramming a lot of experience in to a few years. I could write a book about that, though.