Western Oregon Journal

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           While sitting at the awards luncheon for the Oregon Newspaper Publication Association (ONPA), eagerly awaiting the announcement of who won what this year, our luncheon speaker made the comment that, “awards are like crack,” and to be brutally honest, it is quite true.

            How much do we fiend after praise, like a junkie for a fix? Who cares about a title that is bestowed upon you or a cheap sheet of paper with your name printed on it in delicate script? Does possessing it change who you are and what you have done? Does winning or not winning an award make your essay that much better? It is still the same, only now someone, someone with an official title, has deemed it worthy of an award.

            But I am not saying that I do not feel the same way, there is an innate satisfaction that comes from being called out, separated from your peers and proclaimed excellent. I admit that when the Journal won first place for General Excellence at that luncheon, I felt like a million bucks. Did it change a single thing about the issue we submitted that won? No, only gave it a title and a plaque to hang, but the pride we felt in ourselves, having been announced in a room packed with people, that we were the best, the most excellent, is not something I would trade.

            And yet it still puzzles me why an award makes you feel better. Is it that someone has finally recognized the work you put into something? Is it because you have been announced better than someone else? Is it our competitiveness that brings on the need for praise and award? Why must we always strive to be the best, and in turn to beat other people? If all the newspapers had been equally excellent, ours just as much as someone else’s, I would not be as excited about the title “excellent” as I was when there were runners up.

            It is the need to set ourselves apart from the crowd, I think, that does this to us. We want to be bigger and stronger and better, and that is what causes us to hunger for awards. In a country where individuality is not the most prized of traits, we long for the chance to be an individual, and to be the one who is better. Why would you not want to be better? Who doesn’t want to win?

            So are accomplishment and award and praise all that drive us? Are we so hungry for recognition that we forget the process of doing and the personal satisfaction that can be derived simply by completing a task? I know every Wednesday night when I trudge home after ten, twelve, fourteen hours in the Student Media office, when the paper is finally put to sleep and I am satisfied with my writers and coworkers and myself that not everything I do is based on praise.

            Awards are nice because they come in small doses, you do not expect an award for every task you do, and if you received one you would eventually not do any task that went unrewarded. Praise is always welcome, and should be given lavishly when deserved, but don’t let that be all that drives you, take some satisfaction just in the doing of things and not in who praises you when your done.

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