I won an award. No I'm not shittin' you. And it's not for having a potty mouth or a ghetto booty. It's an real, damn-I'm-proud of myself award.
Unless you've worked at a military newspaper, you've probably never heard of Keith L. Ware. He was a major general in the Army, a Medal of Honor awardee in World War II and was killed in action in the Vietnam War.
So how does that apply to me? Well, Maj. Gen. Ware is the namesake for the Keith L. Ware Journalism Awards Competition. And me, yup, lil' ol' Georgia peach me, won one.
But, you might say, you haven't worked at The Bayonet for a year and a half. True. But I did write two articles last year, and one of them just happened to win me second place in the "Contribution by a stringer writer" category for the southeast region.
It was an article about one of my best friend's sons, a high school wrestler who is just a great all-around kid. He won the state championship wrestling title in his weight class and I believed that he deserved an article letting everyone know what a kick-ass kid he is. He does well in school, is a very nice kid and an outstanding athlete.
The best part of my award is that I didn't even know my article had been submitted for judging. I think that's why I was so surprised. I submitted some articles about 10 years ago and didn't win anything. The irony is not lost on me that when I don't even write anymore is when I win an award. But I'm not complaining, no way, no how.
I'm not ashamed to say I'm very proud of myself. I've put a lot of sweat and hard work into working at that newspaper and although I enjoy writing, I don't consider myself a writer unless I'm filling out a form and it asks for my occupation and for some reason "Homemaker" just doesn't sound exotic enough for me, so I fill in "Freelance writer."
Because I do still write a weekly sports column for The Bayonet, for free, natch. I enjoy writing the column and I love sports, and when I had stopped doing it it bothered me so much because I thought it sucked because I'm critical like that.
So I'm going to enjoy my accomplishment and let everyone I know that yes, I won an award. And yes, by gosh golly, I AM proud of myself, thankyouverymuch.
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