It's nice to be appreciated

In my line of work, I don't often get much praise. For the most part, I get "you missed this, you didn't do this, you are taking too long, can't you do it faster, can't you charge less, etc. etc." and I don't often feel appreciated. Most the time I ask myself why I'm keeping going with it. I mean, I know that most my clients must like me (Or at least like how cheap I am) because they stay with me, and when I've tried to quit in the past they have complained about it and wanted me to keep going, but they don't often tell me they are thankful for me.

Tonight one of my clients that lives here in Providence had a "Formal awards night dinner" at Hamiltons. She text me today and asked me if my husband and I would like to come to it and I could take pics for her. So I got to get all dressed up (Which I LOVE to do, and miss high school ONLY for the Proms) and Ashton got dressed up and looked very handsome and sharp. We went and ate great food, and visited with some funny people who kept me laughing, and then I took pics as my client handed out awards to her team members. One of the awards is a prestigious "Go-give" award, awarded to someone who has been especially thoughtful of others, and gone the extra mile. I was getting ready to take the pic of who ever it was when she called my name! My jaw dropped and I said "WHAT?" Because I'm just in the background, no one really knows me on the team or anything, and I didn't expect to be a part of it. When I went up to get my roses and a prize, three of my clients all stood up and gave me a hug and "gushed" about me and how great they think I am. (Now don't go thinking that I think I'm that great, because I really don't, but it was nice to have some people giving me positive feedback instead for a change.) So I left with warm fuzzies in my tummy, and feeling a little bit of why I DO do my business. I really do like to see others succeed, even if I don't get much from it. From time to time, I have given of my time for no cost. I spent 2 days at her house a couple weeks ago at no charge to her, just to help her finish out some of her "Year-end" goals, just because I knew she was working her butt off to accomplish her goal, and I really wanted to see her succeed. Anyway, I like to do little things like that once in a while, makes me feel good, so really it's selfish on my part. I think most the time service can come off selfish, because we the givers end up with a good feeling for doing it. Ha ha.

Thanks for letting me share. I have lots and lots of pics I need to post to catch everyone up, but for some reason they are having a hard time loading off my comp, so I will have to try later.