Awards Show Jitters

A post about awards?  Well, we’ve done these posts before, so why should I have jitters?

These awards are something quite different from the lovely honors given to us by our fellow bloggers in the past.  These are actually nominations for the 2012 WEGO Health Activist Awards.  After being nominated, we have to go through the semifinals and finals before a winner is chosen.  If we make it to those rounds, that is.

Enter Ruby’s jitters.

Wait:  Before my jitters take over, thank you so, so much to whoever nominated us for these awards!  The nominations all came from fellow bloggers, I’m pretty sure (though I don’t know all the individuals), and I really feel so humbled and gratified that you felt we deserved these nominations.

Now back to my jitters.

Yesterday morning I filled out three surveys: one for each category in which we’ve been nominated.  We’ve had our name submitted for “2012 Rookie of the Year”, “2012 Best in Show: Twitter”, and “2012 Best Ensemble Cast” (this is the award I think is tailor-made for Canvas).  These surveys were meant to take no more than 1-2 minutes.  They included fields for things like the blog URL, our facebook page, and our Twitter handle.

The surveys took me about 20-30 minutes each.

Why?  Because there was one more little box, and this one was for any additional relevant information about our nomination.

Deep breath.  Big sigh.  Oh Lord.

Now, let me make it known that these surveys are not even compulsory for winning.  But I’m going to lay it out straight for everyone in a way I usually don’t, at least not here.

We have built something very special and amazing with this site.  There is nothing else like it that I have ever seen, and I am so incredibly proud of each and every person who takes their time and contributes, and continually helps us achieve the high standard that readers have come to expect from us.

So, since I am the one who received the emails that led to the surveys (and because they were meant to be completed in four days, so I couldn’t really solicit for help from my co-authors), that last box on each survey had me taking some long pauses, thinking, rewriting, and obviously stressing way more than was ever the intent of the lovely people at WEGO.  Because I wasn’t talking about my blog, I was talking about our blog.  And I wasn’t discussing my contributions, I was discussing the contributions of every single individual author involved in this project, and how all of them have come together to make this site what it is.

If I’d had a month and 10,000 words, I could probably have written something that I would have been able to walk away with feeling good.  But it was just a little box, and what I did write was likely a bit more than they expected anyway.

It isn’t like I feel I screwed something up.  Okay, on the “Rookie of the Year” I did forget to let them know that I was the one writing for our group, but oh well, right?  What it comes down to is me hoping to have somehow given each of our authors their due, in one short paragraph (or three).  In truth, I know that can’t really be done, but I feel like I should somehow be able to circumvent the parameters of reality here (and right now I’m wondering if I need to maybe look at the tests on perfectionism in this post by DeeDee).

If we don’t move on even to the semifinals in any of the three categories, that’s okay.  Honestly, I would love to see us get something like “Best Ensemble Cast”, not just because everyone here is so amazing, but it would probably get us some more exposure.

In my heart, though, I know what we’ve got here, and I know how amazing we are — each of us on an individual level, and what we come together and make in a group.

We’re something pretty special, and being a part of this project is much more gratifying than any award could ever be.

© Ruby Tuesday and A Canvas Of The Minds 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and A Canvas Of The Minds with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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