I could go on for ages about some long winded analogy about success and drive and the crucial part of being happy with those is yourself and blah blah blah. I’m not going to do that this time. This time I’m just going to be an absolute dork about how happy I am with realizing my work is meaning something.

Earlier this week, one of my bosses made the comment about how one teacher should have considered giving us a near perfect score so that way we’d still have the motivation to stay hungry and push to be better. At first I brushed it off and then Wednesday happened.

I remember realizing that 2015 could be something amazing when I discovered earlier this year that the WRKC Staff was nominated for the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System awards – a national competition that allows colleges and universities all over the United States compete to be considered the best of the best in college radio. We were unable to take any winning trophies home but the fact of the matter was that we were a group that had all come into these new positions with minimal experience to call our own. We were the epitome of a new beginning and I remember all I wanted was to come back and go for the win.

I worked my butt off ever since the IBS awards in March. I’ve definitely grown as a reporter and put a lot more care and consideration into each and every story since we were nominated. And I’m glad to see that I must be doing something right with my work with the radio station at King’s.

Turns out this year brought forth an quadrupled amount of entries compared to the previous ones. So naturally, I was a little scared to see how we’d do. It’s hard enough being a small school compared to some big name schools with more man power, support and technology than we could ever hope for. But then seeing how there were even more people trying to fill up this pond to show our best stuff, I kind of lost my faith in my abilities. Hundreds of different entries from across the nation, we sent out eight of our favorite / best pieces for consideration. Sure WRKC isn’t exactly a stranger or an odd name in the mix when it comes to college radio, but even in my limited abilities with mathematics, I knew the odds were pretty intimidating for us to pull of anything.

And somehow, we did it. Would I have been stoked to see every single one of those entries become a finalist? Hell yes. But the numbers were pretty high this year, only the top 10% were considered to be finalists. So scrolling down that was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in my life but somehow WRKC managed to pull off nabbing two of our eight entries as finalists. The thing that blows my mind the most? Both entries were a bit of my favorite work I’ve ever done. One project was from the mammoth that was the Halloween Spooktacular. We worked hard on that in class and it was a great sight to see the combined best efforts of my classmates come together for that long broadcast. And now the group effort is being recognized? God that’s an incredible experience.

But the ultimate thing that really had me break the usual indifferent, harsh regular exterior is when I saw my own name on that list too for best campus news. It didn’t really sink in for me until one of my best friends literally picked me up and squeezed me in the biggest hug saying how proud he was of me because he sees how much work I put into everything I do, especially when it comes to the radio. I think I had just been putting everything I had into working with the radio, I just see each project like my own kid and I just want the best possible things to happen once it goes out into the world.

It was just an incredibly humbling moment when I realized that the hunger that my boss talked about actually pays off. I am one of the most stubborn, determined people I know. I don’t have confidence in a lot of things I do in my life, but I do believe that I’ve got at least half a brain when it comes to doing work with the radio station. To see that I’m worthy to be one of the hundreds to be considered some of the best in the country when it comes to best campus news was just something I just can’t get over.

No matter how tough I pretend to be, I just broke down and realized that the fire of wanting to continually do better is actually paying off. It’s really nice to see that what I’m doing is actually amounting to something that I’m proud of. Hell, it’s incredible that I can say that in at least one aspect of my life, I am not useless. I’m pretty dang decent at my job at WRKC and I can totally live with that.