Oh yes!

That was me who recently captioned a blog post "The Persistence of Life OR Never Give Up!" I certainly meant it. But, let's face it, sometimes life is just f*$#ing hard, yes?

If you've read my "Susan J" page, you know that I'm familiar with the struggle.

We all struggle sometimes. Many of us struggle often! Sadly, a lot of folks have bought into the lie that life should be some kind of free ride, and they get angry or bitter when it isn't. Too much TV maybe? Too many bad romance novels?

Life isn't easy. Period. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be fun.

As much as I've struggled over the past couple of years, I've also had a lot of fun.

Amidst the divorce, downsizing, moving twice, and looking for work, I've enjoyed living in the city, meeting new people, and getting to know myself as I figure out what I want to do with my life.

I haven't completely figured it out yet, maybe I never will, but one thing I know: I love taking photographs! And I love writing! I've been having a blast learning the brave new world of digital photography. I used to thoroughly enjoy my time in the darkroom developing and printing my photos. Now I thoroughly enjoy learning what I can do in Lightroom and Photoshop - and the possibilities are endless!

Much of it is still a mystery to me, but that's part of the fun. When I'm doing something in Photoshop and it works as I envision, it's the proverbial lightbulb going on over my head. I work at my photography and my writing Every. Single. Day.

On Tuesday night, something exciting came of that hard work. Two of the three photos I submitted for the Connect Downtown photo contest came up winners! Over 1,500 photos were submitted and 64 were chosen, and two of them were mine, along with a talented group of other photographers - yeah!