Daring to Try

There's something always exciting about facing a challenge and overcoming it. As a counselor, I get to help others with that process and once a year I have the honor of watching students graduate often knowing what they had to face beyond tests and papers.

But we all have personal challenges to deal with.

There's a local art show sponsored by Munson Williams Proctor Institute that I've enjoyed visiting for years. I've always been lucky enough to have artistic friends, but just as I've never taken a political science class, neither have I taken a formal art class.

But art has come to be a serious hobby for me. And there are some days that it's a lot more than a just a hobby. There are some days where making something creative is the best counterbalance for some of the other aspects of the day.

But past week I took the plunge and submitted a piece to the Sidewalk Art Show. I've thought of doing it for the last few years, but it's a juried show. My usual justification for not doing it was that the submission day was the day that I leave for my annual get away. The stronger reason, most simply, was that I just was too chicken.

So I had to laugh as I was leaving the museum and the guard commented "Well, that didn't take long."

"Actually, it probably took like 15 years," I answered.

Dropping the piece off didn't take long. Working up the courage to do so probably took too long.

And yesterday, I got the postcard telling me that my piece had been accepted for display!
Maimun