I have been meaning to blog about this, except that I couldn't because I was told by the organizers to maintain discreet until the time is right for us to shout out about it. 4th June 2014 pitching session came and gone just like that; so did 20th June 2014, the night when they announced the grand winner.
It feels like it was just yesterday when I was frantically preparing my presentation slideshow and cooking up what to say for my pitching session. I had to convince the judges why they should give me the 25k prize money (along with other knowledge goodies which I wanted so badly).
It wasn't long before that, before we moved to the studio, there I was sitting on my love's bed while I fill up the entry form online to this competition. I remember saying to him, "no harm done, right? After all, it'll be a blessing if I could win the big 25K to fund the blog." I can finally attend seminars, upgrade equipment for blogging and most importantly, I can finally bring this blog to the next level...
...You must be thinking that I won, well, I didn't unfortunately.
I have to admit that I was a little devastated, but I trust that the judges made a wise decision on selecting the winners. There could be many factors to why I didn't win the prize, perhaps I wasn't convincing enough, perhaps there are too many things on my blog (I recalled one of the judges commented that my blog has a lot going on; little bit of spirituality, motivational topics yet arts and crafts too). Perhaps to the eyes of the public, I may not be up to that standard yet in receiving huge number of Facebook LIKES or blog followers.
Perhaps yes... I have to admit, not winning has made me questioned many things; popularity, the system, society, creativity... it has made me wonder if I am tired of blogging...
...But in the morning of my post-phase, I realized that "No I am not tired. I am doing this for a reason." Because my blog of MANY THINGS only have ONE AIM- an aim to INSPIRE, especially those who questioned what I questioned, those who felt what I felt or those who sat through their roller coaster rides not realizing that it is OK for them to pursue their dreams.
A friend of mine said to me, kind words she gave, in the morning of the award ceremony day. She wished me best of luck, and told me that if I do win, it;ll be the best thing ever! and if I don't, it is okay because I have nothing to lose.
She was right. There was nothing for me to lose, because throughout the journey of this entire competition, I gain experience, recognition and honor. (Thank you, you know who you are)
I remember the day I received the email that I was shortlisted Top 10. I was shocked, speechless and even asked out loud "did they made a mistake? is it me?" I was of mixed emotions; but most of all surprised to see myself going that far. I've never gone that far before in a competition, I was certainly very proud of myself *pats back* (just so you know, this is not any self-praise, self-consoling blog post, haha!)
If I travel back there again, to that feeling when I first opened the email; I must say so myself that though I didn't win grand prize of content category, being top 10 has already put me on the map and as devastated I may feel, I cannot deny that recognition.
I got to meet interesting people. When you are always working a 9-5 job, and you don't get out much except you are most of the time behind your computer (ironic that I blog), you don't really get to meet people who are like yourself.
I was quite lucky, because not only I got to meet food bloggers like Jacqueline of Dine with Jaq, app developer like Anthony of Trackbutter, artist Kendrick of Kendylife and of course, pioneer film producer in Malaysia's film industry James Lee of Doghouse 73 pictures.
Since I keep telling people this, I might as well mention it here; James Lee did a film many years ago called 'The Beautiful Washing Machine'. I was in college back then, and it was part of our assignment to study and watch the thought-provoking film. I didn't know it was THE James Lee when I was chatting with him during the pitching session the whole time until the next day. He is the grand prize winner of Content Category by the way, and I think James Lee deserves it. Oh and I got to chat with one of the judges, a pleasant person, Samuel Wee of General Manager of Says.
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| My name on the nominee announcement! |
The night ended very quickly after the announcement of the winners including a surprise category called the Judges Choice. I left immediately after the show was over. The next day, I decided to embrace the idea that being selected top 10 out of 700 over participants is already an honour. For that I am grateful and I give thanks to the Universe.Thank you DiGi, judges for letting me be part of the top 10 and YOU (readers), followers, supporters, voters, friends and family, for your love!
For those of you who would like to watch the full video of the event night, you can do it here:
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