Women Inspiring Women Awards – Part One – The Celebration

The Winners!

Recently, I’ve been making a lot of noise about having been nominated and shortlisted for an award. I was up for the Author/Blogger category in the second annual Women Inspiring Women Awards, sponsored by Damsels In Success. As you may have noticed, I decided to join in with gusto and told everyone who would listen about my nomination and asked them to vote for me. This was several steps outside my comfort zone but I know that if I am going to reach a wider audience and make writing my full time occupation, promotion, aka making a noise, needs to happen!

Voting closed on Wednesday and by that time I was in the middle of making decisions about my dress, shoes and bag, sorting out directions to the hotel in Birmingham and making arrangements to cover my family responsibilities. A large part of me didn’t want to go; as I’ve said before, my mother has been quite unwell since breaking her hip and I had been looking after her. I felt my place was to stay nearby, ensure she was cared for and comfortable, and be on hand for emergencies, but she had other ideas. She told me that I must go to the Awards and so we arranged for a friend to stay with her over the weekend.

On Saturday, I did something that I hadn’t done for many years; I had my hair ‘done.’ Sure, I have my hair cut and I used to have it coloured regularly, but that is routine maintenance. This was different; I actually made an appointment to have a blow dry so that I could arrive in Birmingham ready coiffed and looking grown up. As soon as my hair was done and I had satisfied myself that all was in place for Mother, I set off with the satnav programmed and the AA route printed out and ready on the passenger seat.

As I suspected, the long drive was fine as long as I was on the motorways. Things got a little more tricky once I was within half a mile of the hotel, couldn’t see it, couldn’t find out where to park etc etc. I did get there, however, and actually it wasn’t dramatic at all, just a little fiddly.

Let’s fast forward through the getting ready – as soon as I arrived at the drinks reception I was delighted to bump into a number of people I already knew and also meet up with some that I had connected with before but not met face to face. Everyone looked dazzling and sparkly as you can see from the photograph (unfortunately I failed dismally at being visible and there is not a single picture of me in my dress with my hair and makeup done…never mind!).

This was followed by a delicious meal in the beautifully decorated room and then the announcements started. I have to confess that I did think I wanted to win. And then…they got to the Author/Blogger section and Sandra Peachey started to read out all our names. I realised that the very last thing I wanted to do was pick my way between the tables, get up on the stage, receive the award and make a little speech. I started to hope desperately that anyone else would win except me. As they gave each nominee’s name, it appeared, with a picture, on several big screens in the room. Just so everyone knew who we were. It was all excruciating for me, especially when I realised that the picture they had used for me, for some reason, was one taken after a race, in a running vest, with no makeup and sticking up hair! At this point I lost any remaining composure and buried my head in my hands…

So I was flooded with relief when Hannah Davis was announced as the winner in my category. Finally, I could relax and join in the celebration, congratulate everyone else and enjoy watching all the winners. In fact, although I had heard people say ‘we are all winners’ when referring to everyone on the short lists, I didn’t really feel that until I was there at the event. It was a huge celebration of everyone’s achievements and aspirations, of course focussing on the stories and personalities of the actual winners, but recognising everyone.

The rest of the evening was wonderful. I connected with more women whom I had found inspirational online but not actually spoken to face to face before, made new contacts and had a fabulous time on the dance floor. I also knew at midnight that it was time to call it a night because I had a long drive home planned for the morning.

A few days later, a little perspective helps me to see what it all means for me. I made several big strides forward, promoted myself and showed up to acknowledge my contribution. I took my place among many successful, inspiring women and accepted that I am part of that community. I celebrated like crazy and had a lot of fun. Ok, I didn’t want to get up on stage and that has to be my next hurdle. Right now, I’m admitting my fear and vulnerability in this area and putting out the intention to deal with that hurdle in the near future.

What happened the next morning is a whole different story that I will tell in Part Two of this post. And the fact that I showed up for Life and all its challenges next day, the fact that I can thrive despite those challenges, is all part of what my own little part of Women Inspiring Women is all about. I write about the lessons I learn, the changes I have made and the things I notice about our existence. I wouldn’t know any of this stuff if my life had been easy in the past. And then I wouldn’t have anything to share and I wouldn’t have people say to me, ‘you helped me,’ ‘you inspired me,’ or, ‘my day got better after I read your post.’

And today, guess what? The problems are still there, the challenges and the ‘things to worry about.’ Some of them are new and rather serious. But my life is easy now because of how I choose to look at things, because of what I think about (and what I don’t think about), because of the community I choose to belong to. And that is something well worth celebrating!