The first part of this year, I hosted a workshop series for a group of delightful young ladies ages 13-15 years. Their picture-taking experiences consisted mostly of taking candid photos of themselves and others with their cell phones. They even showed me the best way to do a self-portrait of myself with my cell phone. Lol. A couple of the girls developed a genuine interest in photography so I eventually put them in my continuing education program. One young lady–I’ll call her Lisa–was a very good student throughout the series, and she really had a flair for design as her vision board and photo journal were done so creatively. She liked taking pictures but didn’t appear to have the interest in photography as some of the other girls.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that over the summer, Lisa had entered some photographs in the LA County Fair and had won ribbons on all of her prints! She’s now pursuing doing something with photography and is saving up her money to purchase her own DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex).
Just goes to show you that most of the time we probably don’t know the full extent of our impact on the lives of others. Keep doing, saying, and showing positive things towards others. You’ll be planting seeds that will someday come to fruition. 
This is a beautiful story. It is so often true of most people. They aren’t sure enough of themselves to project confidence but have that God given talent within them. I pray this girl continues on with her talent and developes into a success in what ever field she chooses and also becomes a beacon to another young girl.
Thanks Jo. I hope she does, too. She actually plans to be a teacher so she has the potential to become that beacon. I was stunned to find out about her successes as she seemed to me so nonchalant about photography. Her mom told me she used some of the techniques I taught in class to create her images.