When I started kicking around the Make Waves essay contest, I was excited. When Alicia at Jaybird and I started talking about a blogger collaboration, I got really excited. When Erika at All Things E and Rachel at Tossing the Script came on board, I was stoked. 

But when I read the Make Waves entries, I was blown away. 

Ladies. You are fantastic. 

And from all four of the Make Waves hosts, we thank you for participating. For sharing your stories with us. And most of all, for making waves and sailing stormy seas. 

In each entry, bloggers opened their hearts to us and shared their grief, their joy and their aspirations. 

I, for one, am honored to have been a part of it all. 

Choosing a winner was tough, but we are happy to announce that Jamie of Ink + Adventure was our top choice. If you haven't read her entry yet, we highly recommend you hop on over here.

You can read all the entries here. 

Thank you again lovely blogging ladies for participating. We loved the Make Waves contest and hope you did too. Let us know if it's something you'd be interested in doing again, but I'll certainly keep using the #makewaves motto and would love to have you along for that ride. 

And most importantly, keep on sailing those rocky seas and rockin' the boat! 

It's a cold, rainy, gloomy day in Great Falls, so I'm thinking of sunnier times, like this photo from our trip to Gibson Reservoir two years ago when I was visiting from D.C. 

We went to the farmer's market this morning, in the cold rain, to get tomatoes and peppers since my seedlings aren't doing so well. There wasn't really time to start over, so we figured we'd support local farmers while also getting our mini-farm act together. 

In a way, I'm sort of glad for the rain, it gives me a chance to catch up blogging, rink work and all the things that don't get done when I'm busy at work or shoveling dirt and chasing chickens. Can't say I enjoy a cold day in June, or getting rained on, but I'll take sleeping in, talking to my favorite local farmer at the market for tomato advice, and picking up some more Montana Coffee Traders coffee.

So while I'm catching up, M is napping with the pups, I decided to round up some of the great links I've been reading lately since I haven't done a links post in awhile. 

The crossroads of Should and Must. Something that's been on my mind a lot lately.

I've struggled with weight for most of my life and been thinking about writing about it recently. Manda has me thinking about it even more, but in a good way, with this post. And Alicia has me thinking even more about about weight/eating/exercising and budgeting.

How life is different in your late 20s than early 20s. I can relate to just about everything on this list. Charissa Moore of House of Bliss and I were cracking up over this.

Alicia at Jaybird reminds us that it's not our 20s, it's our life. I'll be 31 in August and I can say for sure that I'm still figuring things out. 

Christina at Route Bliss gives great photography tips that I need to put to use this summer!

I was very busy at work this week, but I had this on my mind and honestly, I think it helped me work more efficiently, though I have a long way to go on eliminating the unnecessary. 

Don't forget to check out the #MakeWaves essay contest and get yourself entered by June 20!

A few months ago, I was searching for a necklace to replace my worn out horseshoe necklace and my "fearless" bracelet. I'd happened upon the bracelet years ago in a little shop in Annapolis. It's basically irreplaceable and starting to fall apart. The horseshoe necklace was a gift from a friend reminding me to make my own luck. 

Finding something to replace those trinkets that carried personal meaning was a tall order. 

Finally, I settled on a tiny sailboat that came with a card reading "Make Waves."

I wear it almost every day as a reminder to make waves throughout my daily life. 

It's a tiny, silver reminder to always go big, to do my best and to not fear making waves of goodness that ripple out beyond me. 

Most days, that's in my job. In writing stories that might disrupt the status quo but still playing it straight and not falling victim to the overuse of subjective adjectives, or asking complicated questions about difficult topics. Sometimes it's in setting the bar higher and higher and pushing myself to reach those seemingly unattainable goals, and bringing others up to that level with me.

It would be easy to sit back and let things happen. To say that it's not my job, or just not engage. True, making waves sometimes exhausts and frustrates me, but I'd rather live that way than to have made no meaningful impact with my life. 

There are plenty of days when I fail to live up to my own high bar, when I'm tired and stressed and good enough is just good enough. Some days, I can only muster the energy to focus on one issue and have to tune all the others out to ensure the most pressing task is accomplished. 

But every morning when I put that little sailboat around my neck, it's another shot at making waves.

In so many of my new projects, in journalism, with the skating rink, veterans groups in town, I know I've disrupted the balance as it was. With fresh, not from here eyes, and my experiences, I brought new ideas and energy to projects that were doing just fine, but could be better. 

I'll admit to starting slow here in Great Falls for fear of rocking the boat too much before taking the time to get to know the existing way of doing everything. Not everything is broken.  I didn't want to be seen as some East Coast elitist coming in and bossing everyone around. Not everything needs to be fixed, but that doesn't mean you can't bring a wave of enthusiasm and energy to the party. 

I once read that we all owe it to the world to do what we can with the skills we have. I took that to heart and genuinely believe that I owe it to my readers, to skaters, to journalists, to veterans, to do the best I can with my skill set. Certainly, I'm not the greatest writer to ever put pen to paper and I'm no Tara Lipinski, but when faced with an opportunity to make some waves, you can bet I'm going to give it a go. 

It might be my fundamental character that simply won't let me walk away from a chance to help, even if it might frustrate or exhaust me. I just can't stop myself. 

Making waves, to me, isn't turning the world on it's side and seeing where the chips fall. It's not reckless abandon or disregard for rules and structure. It's working within those confines to do something great. It's using what you have, thinking outside the box, getting other people with useful skills to buy into your hair-brained idea and making something incredible happen, together.

So get out there and rock the boat a bit. I'll be looking for your waves.

Join me, Alicia of Jaybird, Erika of All Things E and Rachel of Tossing the Script for a Make Waves essay contest. Each of the hosts will share their story this week and on Friday, we open the contest to you, dear readers, to share your stories. When the contest ends, the four of us will read all the essays and choose a winner, who will receive the same sailboat necklace from Dogeared Jewelry that inspired me and free ad space from the hosts. Don't forget to use #MakeWaves when sharing your posts on social media. Grab the button below to share the contest with your readers if you'd like!

  <div align="center"><a href="http://www.nearandfarmontana.com/blog/make-waves-an-essay-contest" title="Near and Far Montana" target="_blank"><img src="http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac48/nearandfarmontana/f2908e3e-cca0-42bf-892c-6322bf362b49_zps7e3e49d4.jpg" alt="Near and Far Montana" style="border:none;" /></a></div>