What It's like to Win One of the People's Media Awards at Associated Content

When I first learned that one of my articles had been nominated in the forums by Randy (a.k.a. the Barefoot) I was thrilled that he thought so highly of my work. He's such a well respected and talented member of the Associated Content community that I knew his nomination would get me extra pages views. It never occurred to me that I had any real chance of winning. AC is, after all, a haven for undiscovered talent and it's filled with many dedicated wordsmiths all trying to make a difference with their writing. The nomination gave me a two day, mile-wide grin and then it slipped off my radar screen, just a passing highlight in an otherwise dreary December.

A month later an e-mail came from Michael Street saying: "Congratulations, Jean Riva, you and your content on AC have won the Best of AC - Text in our 2007 People's Media Awards for your outstanding content: How My Husband's Stroke Changed My Life. We ask that you keep the winning of this award confidential until we officially announce the winners on our site on January 29."

Keep it confidential? "Okay, the skywriter can wait," I thought, "and the phone call to my high school English teacher." How silly it was for me to even assume the woman was still alive after all these years.

My next thought was that the e-mail from Mr. Street was a practical joke or a phishing cooked up by a Nigerian scam artist designed to wrangle social security numbers out of naive senior citizens. The article nominated in the forums and the content that supposedly won were not one and the same my Doubting Thomas persona had brought to my attention. But the e-mail proved to be on the up and up thus I'm sitting here writing an acceptance speech.

I am incredibly proud of this award. It's not that I or anyone else writing for Associated Content needs validation for our efforts but it's none-the-less a special honor to get it. Many of us---I suspect---would still write even if we couldn't find anyone to read our work because, as painful as the writing process is at times, it's in our blood. A part of who we are. Associate Content producers know, however, that the potential number of readers we can reach is mind-boggling. This website has evolved into an important and respectable media outlet with a diverse body of content. Any writer would be sublimely happy to have one of their coveted awards on their resume and I'm no exception.

I don't fool myself into believing that this honor was bestowed on me because my writing is any better than anyone else's who was in the running for one of this year's media awards. It's not. The subject matter that is---for the most part---an intricate part of my writing style probably had much to do with my content coming to the attention of the right people at the right time. It seems to resonate with the Baby Boom Generation and others trying to find humor or sensibility in some of life's most difficult situations. What ever the reason for the award, I humbly thank everyone at Associated Content who was a part of the awards process for 2007. And a special mention goes to the Barefoot for his kindness in nominating my humor content, The Shower Stall Mystery, in the forums.