L - Little life changing moments

It never happens like in the movies. The noise doesn't stop, the light doesn't focus, and sometimes you have no idea our life just changed. Unfortunately, the life-changing moments are seldom big enough to be noticed in the chaos of everyday life.

The day I discovered HPANA was one such moment. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I was 14 when I came across the Harry Potter fan site and made myself at home. I joined conversations voicing my opinion and theories until, fatefully, I found the Sonorus section.

It was the place where graphically talented people fathered. They made avatars, desktop wallpapers, and blends. I was fascinated by their work, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

The first day I opened photoshop was just as fateful, if not more so, than the day HPANA was discovered. I played around with the tools, teaching myself one-by-one what each of them did. For years I experimented with the program, everyday learning new tricks. Never taking a class or looking up a tutorial online, learning the program was a slow and frustrating process. Nonetheless, my persistence paid off and by the time I entered my 12th grade digital photo class I knew more about the program than my teacher did.

But I didn't stop with photoshop. I soon discovered the entire adobe creative suite, slowing learning them all. I continued entering competitions, eventually winning 1st place in an international book cover competition.

Then, one day, I had an idea. I knew I was capable of making wedding invitations, so why not earn some extra cash? I decided to start my own business, a wedding invitation company.

My love for the art only continued to grow, and when I entered college I declared a visual arts minor, hoping one day to have a career.

Where would I be had I not come across that site? Would I have ever opened photoshop? It's crazy to think of all the moments that have made the biggest difference in my life, and to realize that at the time I took them as nothing more than daily routine.

But I like it that way. I think that if, every time something big or life changing happened, we were aware of it, we would stop paying attention to the little things, and life would become one big string of monotonous activities, just waiting for the next big thing.

And that is why the little life changing moments made it onto my gratitude list, because I believe that not knowing which moments in our lives are the biggest makes us appreciate each moment so much more.