Awards and Award Ceremonies

Getting an award is a sign you're a winner. Awards are granted to so many people that it's hard to tell when they actually mean something. Everyone lives for recognition and awards offer the perfect chance to do this. Even consolation prizes and participation awards offer people the chance to get noticed. And so, of course, people love them. People love awards ceremonies even more for this reason especially considering all the pomp and circumstance. That really adds to their feelings of self-importance. Not only do people get the physical award but they get it in the most exaggerated way possible. People really fall for it. Even I fall in their trap. After all, I should probably revel in my accomplishments without having a physical award.

However, when awards show your actual placement in something and signify an actual competition, it's great. And so was my winning an award yesterday and going to the award ceremony.

I never thought I was going to place. Before, I simply got Honorable Mentions. And I was okay with it because it was such a prestigious competition and I thought I was never going to get that far. But I did.

And so I succumbed to vanity. Even though I already had my physical award mailed to me, I already went through the ceremony because that made it even better. Basically, we just all gathered, listened to someone speak and then greeted the audience with our work behind as we did. Then we got food and got to look at the artwork. So it didn't even accomplish much besides letting us indulge ourselves in our victory and our feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment. In our precious egos. 

Yes, this award ceremony might not have even been the literal giving of awards but it was a time to celebrate and acknowledge us. To make us the center of attention and feel self-important. Just what the award ceremony was for. Of course, I had fun and felt awesome but it was only later that I started to think, started to question. I wondered if I had a right to be self-indulgent and I decided that I had because I had earned it. I was a winner truly and I needed to celebrate.