Awards can be fun

By Christopher A. Hayes, On-line Forty-Niner

April 27,1998

My hands were sweaty, my pulse was racing and my temperature was rising. I did my best to tune out the crowd around me and said a prayer to whomever could hear my silent thoughts. "Please, let them call my name!"

 

My name is Christopher A. Hayes and I am the opinion editor for the Daily Forty-Niner. My day had started like any other - shave, shower, a long drive and at 9:10 a.m. meeting of the Daily Forty-Niner editors.

 

As I rose from the table to go to my World Press class, Ivan Goldman, the paper's news-editorial advisor, asked me if I would be back at 4 p.m. "For what," I asked. For the journalism awards was his reply. "Uh, okay, sure," I quipped. This was the first time I had heard about it.

 

As the day progressed, I began to wonder if I might receive an award. I soon bumped into Linda Prendez, the editor in chief of the Forty-Niner and she confirmed my suspicion.

 

So, the question was - what award would I get? Would it be "Best Reporter," or maybe "Best Looking," no it would have to be "Mr. Congeniality." Aw, what the heck - "All Around Great Guy." (This is my fantasy).

 

At the event, held in the Chartroom no less, most everybody who is anybody in the journalism department was there. Even Cal State Long Beach President Robert C. Maxson made an appearance. Everything seemed to be going nicely.

 

Little did I know that as I sat there in the middle of the room, surrounded by my peers, professors and people I didn't know from Adam, that my dreams (since about 11:45 a.m.) would be dashed in a few short hours.

 

TABLEAU -Since I began working in the journalism department last fall I have never suspected that there might be an award given to me for my body of work or my individual articles.

 

BACK AT THE EVENT - Goldman was one of the first speakers. He introduced Therese Quesada, my predecessor, to distribute the University Magazine awards.

 

He exhalted her as the best opinion editor to hit the Forty-Niner since as long as he could remember. HELLO! Your current opinion editor is still in the room, thank you.

 

Quesada announces the award for "Distinguished Writing" for the magazine. Now, I am thinking that perhaps the article that I so generously donated to the magazine last semester might earn me this prize.

 

The story was about a student from Romania who journeyed to the United States and slept on a land-mine along the way (she's okay). I put my proverbial blood, sweat and tears into this story, and to this day I still consider it my masterpiece.

 

But would it be enough to garner an award? Quesada called out the award's recipient. The name did not match my own. Then Quesada moved on to the award for the most creative magazine article. Again I suffered disappointment.

 

We moved on to the Forty-Niner awards. This time, She-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless gave out these treats. On-by-one, she called out each award and on-by-one I was not given a reason to go up to the podium.

 

"Best New Reporter!" Nope. "Best New Writer!" Uh, uh. Eventually we got to "Best Opinion Writer for Spring '98." - "Christopher A. Hayes!"

 

Now I could say the competition was not all that tough - I am the ONLY opinion writer (Quesada got the opinion award for Fall '97). But I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

Unfortunately there were too many steps between my chair and the podium. It provided just enough time for SWSRN to say a few kind words about me.

 

She said that after I made the editorial column reflect the opinions of the rest of the editorial staff, and not just my own, and after finally doing some research on my articles, my work has started to get pretty good.

 

I learned something that day. They like me, they really like me.