Happiness

So yesterday I was going through a usual Monday at the paper when I found out that the Nat'l Newspaper Publisher's Association finally presented their annual awards over the weekend. And to my surprise, I won TWO first place awards - Best Sports Page and Best News Story.

This means a lot coming from the Black Press because these last three weeks have taken a toll on me physically and mentally. I was ready to quit 3 weeks ago because of the sudden tidal wave of stress thrown my way. It literally made me sick and turned me into an insomniac over the next few days. Not to mention I deal with other issues - lack of respect, feeling underappreciated.

The story that I helped co-write to win was our pre-election story on Oct. 30. I went to a campaign headquarters for Barack Obama and spent a few hours there talking to people and understanding what drove so many volunteers to his call. The office director told me that he'd never seen a campaign like this where the grass-roots element played such a prominent role. To me, that's what made Obama's election significant in addition to his skin color and his message.

For Sports we won for our May 8th and May 15th issue. The May 8th lead story was my piece on Kobe Bryant winning the MVP award and the 15th lead story was my boss' take on the OJ Mayo scandal when it broke at USC.

I was extremely happy last year when my story from the Jena 6 rally won 3rd place for best News Story but this is doubly happy because it represents two sections, two different writing styles, two different events that defined Southern California (the Lakers and Pres. Obama's campaign here).

To do all of this at 24...it boggles the mind. I feel like I have so much to learn, so much to get better on as far as being a better interviewer - and yet i have a great springboard to bounce from. I share this happiness with you all and thank everyone who left me comments on Twitter and Facebook.