Before I begin, I would just like to say thank you! thank you! These five ladies (along with DC Web Women and their Social Media Extravaganza Event) have inspired me more than they will ever know. By chance, I saw this event on Facebook posted by my friend Maurisa (Mau-reesa lol). I bookmarked the event because I wanted to go. I checked back a week later and sadly all of the tickets were gone. I emailed Maurisa and by sheer luck she had accidentally order two tickets online and had an extra one available. I was excited. After ten years of designing for the web, I had never actually been to a web related networking event and boy was I in for a surprise.

I have always had plenty of work to do. Swamped with back-logged freelance work to finish, I never felt it was important to socialize with other people. I mean, what would they actually have to say? What would they tell me that I didn’t already know? But honestly it wasn’t what they said that impressed me, it was the connection they created. I believed in them, their stories, their purpose. I wanted to know about them, not only as web women, but as individuals.

Listening to these ladies made me realize I should be doing more. More for myself, more for my family and more for my community. When I left this event with Maurisa I made my own personal resolution. That I would start working on all those projects I set aside in order to make a quick buck. Today I am putting myself and my own dreams first and no longer making excuses why I can’t get my own personal projects finished.

It’s a corny cliche, but very appropriate for how I feel right now … “Today if the fist day of the the rest of my life!” (ok, that might not be exactly right, but you know what I mean!)

photos courtesy of jen consalvo

(from left to right Jen Consalvo, Jill Foster, Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, Beth Jackson Bates, Terri Holley)