Shameless self-promotion

Do you ever have an inexplicable, nagging feeling that you must do something? This doesn’t happen to me often, or maybe I’m just not very receptive to it, but once in a while my spidey-senses kick in.

Several months ago, I got an email from the NKBA about a student essay competition that was being co-sponsored by K+BB magazine. (I’m working on completing my kitchen and bath certification.)Normally, I quickly peruse the mail and file it away. But this one caught my attention. So, I made a mental note to try to come up with something to enter, and filed the email.

Naturally, I soon forgot my mental note. The following month I got another email from NKBA, reminding of the competition, and another note to self was made. And, again, it slipped my mind.

Then, one fine Saturday morning in late January, a synapse fired and I happened to remember that I wanted to enter this contest. I went to my NKBA file in my mailbox and much to my dismay, the deadline to mail was the next day!!! “You should just forget it, it’s too late now.” I thought. But the spidey senses wouldn’t let up and I figured it was better to try and fail than do nothing. (That’s what I’m always telling the kids, right?)

So, I kicked everyone out of the house for the morning and typed away like a madwoman, sure that this was ridiculous to be attempting so late in the game. Working purely on instinct and adrenaline, I managed to come up with something I thought was reasonably coherent, and rushed off to the post office. Proud of myself for even getting in the game, I figured that was then end of it.

Having shrugged it off as good experience, a month later I received a call on my cell phone (while I was driving in pouring rain) from the Editor in Chief of K+BB magazine informing me that I was one of three finalists and that my essay would be published in their magazine and that I had also won a trip to KBIS 2009 in Atlanta. I was so excited, I nearly wrecked my car! A trip to KBIS! And to have my essay published in K+BB! I was so excited, I thought I might actually burst.

Thank you to the generous editors at K+BB magazine and NKBA for giving me an experience I won’t forget! It goes to show, you should always listen to your spidey senses :)

You can check out the article here.