There was a time in my young life when I was a junior in high school and I struggled in my writing class.  The teacher’s name was Ms. Evans.  I was never an A+ student, I had my better subjects and I did love English and writing until I took this class.  I was never a disruptive student and I always did my homework and passed it in on time.  I never knew what this woman had against me.  I worked very hard on all my assignments and would never receive good grades.  Mostly C’s and D’s.  I tried to do extra to bring my grades up: extra credit, additional writing assignments – I tried everything.  When my Mom went to parent/teacher conference, Ms. Evans told my mother that she didn’t like my writing style, which is why my grades were low.  I did not really understand in high school about my “writing voice”.  Even though all of the content in my assignments met the criteria for class, Ms. Evans did not like the style in which I wrote.  Looking back on this now, it seems really unfair how she graded me.  My spelling and grammar were always correct and my arguments strong and factual when writing my term papers, but to give me a D because she did not like my style of writing? Hardly fair.

This weekend my blog has been seen over 500,000 times.  Since high school, I never thought of myself as a “writer”, I lost my confidence in something I enjoyed at a very young age from a teacher who never gave me the opportunity or encouragement to find my “voice”.  I have all of you to thank for that.  It boggles my mind that all of you keep coming back to read my musings about the events world, the occasional personal story and share my photos of all the crazy and beautiful things I see.  Half a million is a very large number and never in my life did I ever think I would see a half a million of something that would affect me personally.

So, THANK YOU to all of my readers who keep coming back and giving me the confidence and encouragement to allow me to do something again that I loved so very long ago. And to Ms. Evans who took my “voice” away in high school, because of your lack of encouragement and indifference in me, it has taken me more than 20 years to gain confidence to put this blog out there, you had me convinced that no one would read anything I had to offer…my readers would beg to differ.

(On another note, I would like to start featuring some of my baker readers on NYC Cake Girl!  There is so much talent out there and I would like to share that with the masses…You would need to answer my 5 questions and share some photos of your work along with a small bio.  I am hoping for a big response!  I want us to all see the inspiring work that is going on in the professional and amateur baking world.  If interested, please email me directly: rwtnyc@gmail.com.)