A small victory can go a long way!

Friday, as I surfed one of the scrapbooking message boards where I'm a member, I got a little jolt of excitement. There on one of the threads was my name as the title! It read, "Congrats DMisner LOTM!" Well, I'm still kind of new to this whole forum thing, and the lingo as well, and I didn't really know what it meant. When I opened the thread, I realized that I'd won something, but I still wasn't exactly sure what. An email from the site coordinator explained (after I'd written an embarrassing email to ask what I'd won)that each month the site's design team votes on their favorite layout and that this month they'd picked mine!!!! :) :) :) I was elated to say the least! It's my first little victory in the area of scrapbooking--a little validation I guess. For so long I've debated whether or not I'm good enough to post to these sites or if I just need to do this for my family (even though they get a bit tired of me shoving scrapbook layouts in their face). Not helping matters any, I recently I had a very negative teaching experience with a local scrapbook store. It's safe to say that my scrapping self-esteem was a bit low. This little acknowledgement has given me the confidence to keep on going. It's just a tiny, almost insignificant, achievement in the grand scheme of life, but it came at just the right time for me--the boost of confidence that I so badly needed. Somebody (from the industry) likes what I do! It's made a world of difference for me!