A BIG thank you to every SOAR! Applicant!
We loved watching all your videos and learning more about you in your applications. The judges did not have an easy task in front of them. But alas, we have picked our three new SOAR! Scholarship Recipients. They have been contacted, and they have confirmed their acceptance.
I know a lot of you have been waiting patiently and wondering if I’m the one ringing your doorbell. As soon as we knew we had three confirmed recipients, I wanted to let you know. We will introduce you to them next week, but unlike last year, I want to give you the space to regroup.
Not winning is never easy. You can feel rejected, angry, “not good enough” and most of all lost. The “lost” feeling is the worst. If I could show you all the rejection emails I’ve received over the last fifteen years for magazine articles, book ideas and TV shows I’ve pitched. You would probably look at me and say, “Girl, you either can’t take a hint, or you are just crazy.” I’m probably a little crazy but also determined :). I hope you will find that determination too. If I could emphasize anything, you not being this year’s recipient is NOT evidence of whether or not you are meant to SOAR with your photography dream.
Can I say that again?
You not being this year’s recipient is NOT evidence of whether or not you are meant to SOAR with your photography dream. This is the truth. But the disappointment is real. Take time to love yourself this weekend. But come Monday, let’s regroup together so that disappointment doesn’t get the last word.
In fact, on Monday I’m going to introduce you to a lady that didn’t win last year. She’s made a video for all of you. And every time I watch it, I cry because of how raw, real and inspiring it is.
I will see you Monday.
Much, much love,
m
I am so excited for the three new SOAR! Recipients! What a great day for them when they received that call! I can’t wait to follow them and learn and grow from them. I don’t feel rejected, I feel like God is control and he has special plans for each one of us! I can’t wait to meet the new SOAR! sisters!
I can’t wait to meet this years winners!!! MeRa- I love this post! I love that the unforeseen issues after last years announcement are already addressed. Perfect.
Thank you for letting us know. If anyone else has had even a slight case of the nerves I’ve had, our families have wondered about our sanity! I think this will also enable us to feel the joy for the recipients that they deserve, without it being colored by our own sense of loss.
I love that you did not take those rejection letters to mean that you were not good at what you do. If I’m being rejected this many times, I must not be good enough. Thankfully you didn’t think that way. Because if you had, you may have given up a long time ago and none of us would know you and your wisdom today.
I pray that this post will help everyone deal with their feelings over the weekend and allow them to be very happy for the new recipients. I appreciate that you saw what happened last year and are trying to make it a little easier on everyone this year. It was tough last year. But many of us dusted ourselves off, after we cried for a while, and went on to start a business anyway. Just being a part of the SOAR community, recipient of the scholarship or not, is an amazing experience!
Congratulations to the newest inductees into the SOAR! sisterhood. 2011 is gong to be an amazing adventure for you all. And congratulations to MeRa, Brian and everyone who had a hand in selecting this years recipients. Your task was a challenging one.
Celebrate Life and Capture It!
Patricia Knight
THANK YOU for the head’s up that “the three” have already been contacted. This had been a particularly hard week for various reasons & I had been praying so hard that I would get THE call sometime this week, so that I could have something to look forward to. It is nice to have the mystery & waiting behind me…I appreciate your consideration of our feelings (feelings some of us didn’t even realize were so deeply tied to this locked up dream of ours).
Best Wishes to the recipients & to the entire SOAR! team!! Thank you for offering your time, talents & resources to inspire others. What a blessing.
May I just have a moment to just breathe it in….
WHEW! I never knew not winning something could have such a “weight lifted” effect. I guess that means that deep down inside I am relieved. I just find that weird. I don’t think it’s evidence that I’m not meant to SOAR with my photography dream, I think it’s more likely I’m just meant to do it in another direction. I told God I trusted him, and I do, completely. He’s never failed me yet. 🙂
I’m still excited! CONFIDENCE WORKSHOP IN 2 WEEKS!!! YEAH!!!
rejection does make me feel angry….and then motivated. so i guess it’s something necessary to make us grow….you think?
Me Ra,
I sit here glossy eyed remembering the feeling that you described above. The waiting, the excitement, the determination, OH the determination, and lastly the let down. Thinking back on it, the anticipation built such strength in me. While I was waiting to hear who had received the scholarship, I got to see how badly I wanted to succeed at this. However, the let down felt acute.
You also inspired me to pick myself back up, reached out to those who were experiencing the same thing, and SOAR!!!
I have a budding wedding photography business. I have accomplished more this past year than I even dreamed I could, and the surprises keep coming. AND let me tell you …OHHHH…. the friends I made along the way…. scratch that…the new family members I acquired along the way.
If there is one thing I could press upon anyone who may feel disappointed, it’s to reach out with an open and loving heart. Me Ra has created a loving and open network. You CAN succeed! Given you let yourself try.
Me Ra, I thank you for the opportunity you gave all of us to grow… and heal.
@Jeramy… you calling me fat!
Pahahahah. Just kidding. 🙂
Knowledge is power! Not knowing was harder than knowing. I hate that state of limbo! Now, I am headed online to find as many photography tutorials as I can possibly find! I will anxiously follow the lucky winners throughout this year! Congratulations!!!
Thank you so much for letting us know, I have been on edge for weeks, jumping at every phone call and knock at the door. I told myself not to get as emotionally involved and devastated as last year, but of course, I couldn’t help but get my hopes up. Wooooooo…… I can finally exhale. I am picking myself up and I am going to get my business started- this year! I… CAN… DO…. THIS. Congrats to those three very lucky ladies, you are so fortunate to have this amazing opportunity to change your lives, I hope to learn from you all!
@delanae….uh….uh…….uh……
🙂
I’m not sure how this will sound, but I’m in tears as I read your comments. I started writing this blog three days ago. I’d write a draft and than delete and start over, over and over again.
Last year, I had such a “great” idea in mind of how to announce the SOAR! Recipients. But when that great idea hurt our applicants, I wanted to crawl under a rock and never resurface. I remember being in Cambodia shortly after and telling one of the older orphans how I felt like I wasn’t cut out for the dreams I carried. I told him about how so many of my childhood years had been filled with critiscm from my dad. And then I looked at him and said, “I feel like my past has broken me to much to live out my dreams for the future. Maybe we should live here and work alongside all of you?” This wonderful orphan who had been saved from the terrors of living on the streets in Cambodia, being in the sex slave industry, looked at me and in not so many words said that he understood what it was like to feel like to broken to fulfill your dreams. But he built his hope around this not being true, just a strong feeling that comes and goes at time. And then he gently told me that even though our full time help would be wonderful and much needed, his orphanage wasn’t a place to hide. What an angel he was too me. If he could pursue his dreams from the pain he had survived, how could I not even try?
I love this community with all my heart. I struggled for months with doing another year of the SOAR! Scholarship. I was afraid. But in the end, the only reason not too was linked to my own weaknesses of striving for perfection or never wanting to disappoint. If perfection and pleasing ruled my decisions, I would never take a risk–not the life I want to live.
Today’s post was something I prayerfully approached. Instead of feeling like a failure from last year’s hurt that the announcement caused, how could we heal old wounds? How could I let you know that I not only heard you last year, but you have helped me find ways to strengthen the scholarship this year. Could we take time to validate the disappointment many of you may feel–the time that is vital to finding your footing again.
Today’s post was my sixth or seventh draft. And I remember hitting “publish” at one point and knowing I needed to let go. I am so deeply thankful that so many of you feel heard, appreciated, validated and loved today. I’m so thankful we ALL are finding our footing. And come Monday, we will push forward together with the inspiration of a fellow SOAR! sister from last year. We will not let our dreams go, regardless of the fears that loom in the distance.
2011 holds many gifts and challenges. But if we face them together and feel the support of each other surround us–there is no telling what any of us can do.
Much love,
m
I’m so glad you did it again this year and didn’t just sit in your discomfort. This not only gave me the opportunity to stretch beyond my comfort zone, but it also gave me the opportunity to pray for each and every woman whose video I watched. I would have never had that opportunity to stretch myself in those ways had you not looked your fear square in the face and walked toward it, and then gave it a hug with a firm, “Get out!”
Life is full of disappointments. Life is full of joys. When I look around today I don’t have one thing less than I did the day before I submitted my video, but I have many more friends. What’s disappointing about that?
Love you Me Ra! Thank you.
Exciting!! I can’t wait!!
MeRa- First let me say, I’m a little late to post, but I’m so so glad you learned from last year and made this announcement today.
To those of you sitting at home today wondering “why not me?” take a moment to look through some of these comments that others from last year have left and actually click through to their blogs and websites. One year ago, there were about 117 of us sitting there feeling the same thing, and I’m willing to be that at least half of us now have a successful, if not THRIVING photography business today. I’m in awe every day when I log into Facebook and see how many of my fellow Soar! Sisters are photographing weddings, choosing logos, working commercial shoots and basically living their dreams! Did we get the cool cameras and bags and custom designed websites? No. We didn’t, and that was a bummer. It took us a little longer, we scraped our money together to piece it together as best we could but we did it. We’re doing it. The Soar! scholarship gave us the confidence and encouragement and support that we needed to get started, and the friendships that we made gave us the network that we needed to succeed. I encourage all of you take the weekend to cry a bit, but then brush off and make 2011 your year to SOAR!
Me Ra!!!! You are amazing! I was an applicant last year, didn’t win, but learned so much about myself as soon as I hit the submit button. I honestly was so happy for the recipients and cried along with them as you showed the videos of you showing up on their door steps! If anyone had the opportunity to meet these three ladies this last year, you will know they were the perfect recipients!! We really have to look at ourselves the the reactions we have to disappointments in life. We all experience them at one level or another. I would urge the ones that had a negative reaction last year to re-direct your focus. If you are disappointed this year, look to SOAR anyway. A contest does not determine your ability to SOAR and to still pursue your dreams. If I let my disappointments in life direct my dreams and goals, I would sit and do nothing. I will not let the disappointments in life direct my future and what God wants me to do with my life regardless of what is going on around me.
Brian & MeRa, you both are amazing and you both inspire all of us! I pray that your dreams and visions expand and that you are blown away with opportunities and platforms that you have to share your stories and to share your amazing talents. We have a theme at our church that says…real people, loving god, touching lives. I believe this about the both of you!!
Love you guys,
Sue
What an amazing day! I am so unbelievably excited for the recipients! So much so that I realize that SOAR! has already done exactly what I needed it to…force me to admit, out loud, that being a photographer is my dream and I am going to make it happen. And it is happening! Looking forward to soaring right along with you all this year. Congratulations recipients…can’t wait to meet you! And congratulations to those who were not selected…time to make it happen anyway!! We all have what it takes…
Thank you so much for this opportunity, Me Ra! I admire and respect you more with each post 🙂
I seriously do not know how you could have narrowed it down to three people; what a crazy responsibility and weight to carry. I so look forward to not just reading along this year but following and applying as many of the challenges to myself as you present them with. It’s not about the best video, or the hardest life, or the most skill or whatever other reason would make any one person stand out over another. You are giving an amazing GIFT and a gift is not something to be earned or won, it is given freely, with love, for any reason that YOU choose. I hope that you can relax and enjoy your weekend with your family, thank you for encouraging us all to keep moving forward.
Me Ra,
I just wanted to say how elegant and graceful your post was today! This past year had been amazing and I am forever grateful for the beautiful community you
created for us. I am also so very proud and happy for our Soar Sisters and how they were motivated and determined to carry out their dreams. You didn’t create a scholarship, you created a sisterhood that will last a lifetime! I wish all the new Soar Sisters much success!
to and fro, stop and go…that’s what makes the world go round. 🙂
mera….your heart is so special….that’s why you ARE doing exactly what you should be. this is your purpose. love you.
MeRa.
What a beautiful letter. Alas, I was not chosen this year… but I can still feel your wind beneath my wings! You are so generous to share all of these experiences with us via the blog. I think it is an amazing resource and I am so excited to follow the recipients through their challenges this year! I only hope that you find the strength and courage to give some of us an opportunity to SOAR with you again next year!
much love to you!
sweetbird.
ahhh yes….i am so excited to see so many people, gracefully doing what they do! way to go me ra and way to go ladies for being focused on moving forward, regardless of the hurt. SOOO many women did so many great things following soar last year–it will be the same this year. i can’t wait to follow!!!
MeRa,
I know I am late in posting this but I just could not wait to get online and be able to tell you what SOAR has already done for me even though I didn’t win. Three nights ago I had an amazing time getting together with one of my SOAR sister’s who is actually a photographer here in my town. We had met once very briefly so we decided it was time to sit down and have a cup of coffee the other night. We had so much fun and spent 3 hours talking about what we love to do! A woman at my church had asked me several months ago to photograph her wedding and I told her NO because I wasn’t ready. A week before you posted the SOAR results I saw that same woman at church and she asked me again and the light bulb went off in my head. My friend and I could so do this TOGETHER! It is because of SOAR that I am even able to post this. The video has lite a fire under me and I am ready to continue on with my business. God has a plan and he knew that I needed to not win this! I hope that your workshop makes it to the east coast in 2011! I cannot wait to grow this year!
Thanks again,
Desiree
Congratulations to the lucky winners…I’m so happy for you!!!
Well ladies if you are like me you are probably thrilled that we can all stop wondering if Me Ra was going to show up at our door step when our house was a mess, our hair was unwashed, we were still in our worn out jammies, and we hadn’t had our first cup of morning coffee. Can you just imagine having a morning like that and here is the amazing woman you have been waiting for ringing your doorbell?
I have to say it would have been great to be chosen as a SOAR recipient but I am still so excited to see what this year holds for all of us. I was not a seasoned Me Ra Koh follower up until I found out about the SOAR program. I have to say that from the moment I submitted my video I have viewed this site almost every day. Oh and the things I have learned by looking at old photo recipes and old blogs. Prior to submitting my video, I told myself that 2011 was the year to grow as a photographer. My plan is still the same today…..to grow as a photographer in 2011!
Me Ra…….Thank you so much for challenging each one of us to follow our hearts and our dreams. I can’t tell you enough how much I love the person you are. For someone who is so passionate (and amazingly talented) about photography, you are just as passionate about helping so many others become equally as talented. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing every gift and talent that God has given you for the benefit of others. For that I could never allow myself to be disappointed for not being selected.
To the 3 new recipients…..I am so excited for each of you. I am sure that you are feeling like you are on cloud 9 at the moment. Sometime soon the assignments will come. I am sure there will be moments of excitement but I am also sure there will be moments where you will be thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?” In those moments just know that we will all be here cheering you on as you face each obstacle and challenge. Enjoy each moment because you each deserve it!
Looking forward to a great year for all 129 applicants.
Tiffany Chabert
Me Ra,
Never doubt that what you do inspires so many around you, more than you realize. I have learned that if one person can be inspired or changed by you, then it was all worth it. Not winning something is never easy, but if you approach it with a different angle and attitude, you can make it about more than not winning, but maybe a beginning of something. I hope others can find strength from you and what you do not what they didn’t gain.
I wrote this on my fb wall the other day after spending 16 unexpected days in the hospital with a very bad case of viral meningitis. I was admitted on early Christmas morning and still have a long road of recovery ahead of me but still smiling because I know where my strength is pulling from. I hope this can help someone else out there too 🙂
“When God closes an opportunity that you think is WOW, He is not saying you are not good enough for that opportunity! He is just either saying the timing is not now or that He has something else better for you…you just need to wait on “His timing” which is always perfect even if we don’t think it is at the moment! What God provides is way bigger than what we could ever have built!”
Love you Me Ra!
-Hugs-
Summie
Me Ra –
I just wanted to tell you thank you for such a heartfelt post. It is clear that you have gone through a lot of trials and no’s and not now in your lifetime. Thank you for feeling our hearts as we realize that we are pushing on once again by ourselves. But then, not really by ourselves. I appreciate all the help you have offered on your site, because without it, us housewives/moms..etc. would have nothing to research.
So, I’m once again off to search the internet for more tutorials, settings, tips and such. But, all things good are worth waiting and working for, right? I know we need to realize that most everyone else does this on their own too. That’s why I wanted to thank you for the “opportunity” to have a great scholarship. I am sure the ones chosen were meant to be the ones. I do have great faith in knowing that what happens..happens for a reason. That just means something good will come around the corner for all of us in some way or another.
God Bless, I will keep on keeping on! Can’t wait to see what this new year brings for everyone.
~ Kara
Thanks MeRa! I’m so glad I did this process of applying for Soar! I can’t wait to follow the new Soar Sisters and learn with them.
Good Luck!
Michelle
Congrats to the three lucky ladies!!! I can’t wait to follow through your journey this year. What a difficult decision that has to be to just choose three. While, I may not have been one of the chosen ones, I can’t wait to follow along here on the blog and push myself to do the challenges along with them. This process has made me realize just how badly I want to pursue this dream. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity, you are very generous!!!!
Me Ra ~ What beautiful words of encouragement to each of us that applied for the scholarship. To say that I wasn’t down on Friday afternoon would be a lie. But after taking the afternoon and evening to be disappointed and have a long talk with God, I realized that each and everyone of us non-receipients can have the same opportunity. I wouldn’t change anything about the process; it truly was a life-changing experience to help me solidify me and one of my passions. It was a moment of realizing the need to push through and awaken more of me and the talents and opportunities God has given me. Disappointment, rejection and all of the same are not easy to take but if we allow ourselves, as you said, to move forward it is so much sweeter. I am looking forward to 2011 and all it has to offer, especially being plugged in to this wonderful group of women we call SOAR!
Thank you for your passion to help other women soar and become beautiful women from the inside out~just like you have become through your life’s trials. May God continue to bless you, Brian and your business.
MeRa ~ I’m so grateful that once again, you have been so brave. As you strive to push forward and keep flapping those precious wings of yours…it continues to inspire ALL of us to start or continue to do the same! SOAR! truly is a Win/Win! For those who have won the Scholarship, CONGRATULATIONS! It is a huge honor and blessing and for those who did not…well…buckle up and start your engines because you are in for one of the most joyous, unforgettable, inspiring, life changing flights of your life. Take a deep breath and leap as high as you can and start flapping! If you commit to following along and participating with the Scholarship winners you will be amazed at all you will learn about yourself, others and photography! Soar has been a gift in my life that just keeps on giving! The blessings are to many to even count or articulate. I pray you are willing to receive! You will never be the same … Remember it’s a WIN~WIN…our job is to believe in our God given gifts that our ours alone and be willing to take that leap of faith and to JUMP! What an AMAZING adventure to join in on…the sky’s the limit!
Several times over this past year…I have looked to the sky to see a flock of geese flying high above. You know how they travel… in that “V” formation. The sight of them always makes me smile. I think back on all I learned over the past year. Applying for SOAR 2010! was one of the best gifts I ever gave myself! It woke me up, it ignited my dreams, passions and purpose like nothing else ever has. I am forever grateful for the opportunities and relationships SOAR has built into my life because of the work that MeRa and Brian have allowed the Lord to do through them.
Back to the birds in flight….I always envision you, MeRa at the front of the flock. The three winning Scholarship recipients at the forefront, close behind you and then the rest of us close in toe. We are all going in the same direction, just perhaps at a different speed and pace. Some are in the lead, with wisdom and strength, others still a bit weaker follow close behind. At times, I would see those few birds that seamed a little off coarse or lagging behind and quite honestly felt like those were the birds that most closely represented me. The cool thing is, that when I watched the birds continue to fly they would often change formation, switch leads and help each other out. The most recent flock I saw was huge, it seamed cumbersome and awkward, then one of those stranglers suddenly decided to be bold and brave and take chance to branch off. She became another lead as some of the birds decided to shift their focus and allowed themselves to rest in her flow. Not sure if this imagery makes sense to anyone else… I guess what I’m trying to say is that no matter where you are in the flock…whether at the lead or feeling like your lagging behind….you are apart of something BEAUTIFUL! We are all apart of something that is ALIVE and BREATHING HOPE and LIFE to ALL that gaze upon and understand it’s GRACE. Each and everyone of us has a part to add to the beauty, no matter where we’re at in the flock! Happy SOARING to ALL in 2011! I Love you and appreciate you so much MeRa…Thank you!
I’ve been wanting to get on here and post a comment to encourage those who were not chosen as one of the “3”. To tell you that when Mera said, “You not being this year’s recipient is NOT evidence of whether or not you are meant to SOAR with your photography dream.” is absolutely true. But I really couldn’t say what I wanted to say any better than Kimberlyn already posted above. She’s right – Soar is win-win and everyone who chooses to participate this year will gain SOOOOO much (things you probably don’t even realize right now that you need or could gain.) So I join Kimberlyn in praying that you are willing to receive and I look forward to an amazing year with each and every one of you beautiful women learning how to soar.
And CONGRATULATIONS to the 3 that were chosen. I can’t wait to meet you. I know you are already busy at work. This is just the beginning of a year of amazing challenges, work, growth, blessing… for you. We are lucky to along for the ride.
MeRa – (as they say on Steel Magnolias) you know I love you more than my luggage!
2011 will have its own challenges, but God has a plan for 2011 and I’m looking forward to being on his team (and yours – I’m totally in your court!) xoxo
Hi MeRa, I just saw this post and I want to say thank you for the news. I’m so happy for the winners and I can’t wait to get this year started. You have given me so much already and I will continue to reach for my goals and dreams. You have inspired me in so many ways and opened up so many doors to meet so many wonderful ladies and make them friends. I just want you to know how much I value you and thank you for all your gifts.
Thank you again,
Liane
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