Julie Ann Shahin's Inspiration For Generation C

This layout (click to see larger image) was inspired by the Weekend Challenge at www.scrapbookeronline.com as well as the Effer Dare #9

I thought this photo would be perfect for this subject. The sunrise speaks to me of hope. I often think of my darkest hour as a moment alone in a tiny apartment near downtown Cleveland...not the best neighborhood with a loud drunk living above me. I remember sitting on the floor, reading prayers from Marianne Williamson's Illuminata: A Return to Prayer.

I could only hope that my prayers to lift my depression would be answered. It's odd that the moment was not in fact my darkest hour to be sure, it was the hour following. It was the hour were I started to feel hope, just like the sun starting to rise. For in my darkest hour, I was truly convinced if I died in this city surrounded by my relatives, no one would find me for days. I believed I was abandoned.

This hour that I speak of, in my tiny apartment, was a moment where I could only hope that there be light at the end of the tunnel. Looking back, if I could speak to the girl I was then (almost a decade ago), I'd tell her she was on the right path. That she just needs to hang on...to know that she is about to cross the bridge to serenity. That this too shall pass.