I.+Self-Reliance+Project

1) Confidence"If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." ---//Vincent Van Gogh// 1) summary: Ignore the advice of the negative voice inside of you and do what you believe you can do and negative voices will no longer bother you.

When I was living in Tennessee, I was in a regular art class at school. My art teacher told me I had some talent so she asked if I wanted to participate in an Art contest! The contest was sponsored by the Orpheum Theater and they were giving out $4,000 dollars in saving bonds to the winners. The theme that year was "December: A Celebration of Holidays and Family" in conjunction with the Broadway musical //White Christmas//. All the best students from grades 7th-12th in the entire state were going to participate and that alone made me feel more unconfident. All the students only had 2 weeks to come up with an Art work that relates to the theme and only 2 people from grades 7-9 and 10-12 would get first and second place, and just a few others would get honorable mention. I was positive that I would not win any position but I took the risk of losing and participated anyway. At first I didn't know what to draw so i just sat staring at a blank piece of paper for 2 days! Then I just picked up my pencil and started drawing. When i finished coloring my picture, I thought to my self, "that maybe,just maybe, I could win!! After all, I have just as great of a chance as anybody else." With that thought in my mind, I gave my Art teacher my picture, and waited a week until the results finally came in. By this time, my confidence level went far down, I started to think things like " They didn't like my picture", "there is no way i would win anything", and "my picture is not so great". On Nov 30, 2007, my Art teacher called me down to the Principle's office,and told me words that i thought i would NEVER hear! She said, " You won Honorable Mention in the contest!!" I was completely shocked and stared at the paper with my name and school on it "Honorable Mention: Michelle Singler - Shadowlawn Middle School, $250 savings bond" and not only that but I was the only one from my school to win, ever!! All my teachers and the Principle were so proud of me, and for once I was proud of myself. After that, I started to become more confident in the things I did. I took more chances and even though I had a higher chance of losing than winning, there is still a chance that I can win, all I need to do is be confident in my abilities.

This an example of what the picture i drew looked like! (drew this on the schools computer using paint)