I have to say part of me is annoyed and part of me wants to take a lesson from this experience. I just picked up my 10 photographs that I entered into the “Open Class” of our county 4-H Fair. I picked them up and the participation ribbons I received. To be more precise, I didn’t win anything

I had chosen my best photographs, paid to have them printed as 5″x7″ prints, paid to frame them, and paid the entry fee. I spent $70 start-to-finish. I got them to the fairgrounds in one piece, despite dropping a few and chipping the corners. The ladies taking the entries stated that would not be held against them.

So, a few days after turning them in, I went to the fair and into the “Open Class” pavillion to see how my photos did. Inside a glass case (not hanging up on the wall), there sat my photos lying on one of the shelves, each with a green “participant” ribbon. I was disappointed and a bit mad. The ones that had purple, blue, and red ribbons were hanging up. While they were good, mine were also. Same quality. I had barely gotten my pictures entered, before they closed the entries. Did that have something to do with it?

You know how when you participate in a contest and pull the tab, look in the box, look under the cap, or scratch off the foil AND you don’t win? It says, “sorry, this is not a winner”? That’s what I’m feeling like right now…

I’ve mulled it over all week and I’ve decided that my success is that I entered it and contended. I will be entering photographs next year, and maybe some cross-stitch too. My pictures are of my town and nature, so next year I will enter more and add some portrait photography, as well as animal pictures, to put photos in multiple categories. My boyfriend and I have beautiful grand babies I can use as subjects.

My thoughts are this: winning can be a type of losing and one person cannot win or be successful at all things, all the time. We have to stay humble and deal with disappointment, because things that don’t workout make the things that do all the more sweet. I won’t give up, I’ll just try again like I always do.

Life lessons…oy… <3