A shower of blessings, a tower of books!

What a week!

I was in my work station in the office past lunch last Tuesday this week, fresh from attending a meeting and working with knotted eyebrows on a report due for submission when I received my text message from one of my closest media friends who told me I won Blogger of the Year (2012) in the first Cebu Media Excellence Awards, one of the new highlights of the 18th Cebu Press Freedom Week. 

Several congratulatory text messages, emails, personal messages, and wall comments on Facebook followed from media friends, a couple of them subtly reprimanding me for not attending the awards and missing the opportunity to walk onstage, receive the trophy, and getting a photo opportunity from the media. I totally missed out on the reprimand part because my brain was hardly able to grasp the first good news.

Okay, not that I don’t trust my media friends; they attended the awards after all. So while I was happy when I heard I was declared Blogger of the Year, I was also skeptical about it, half thinking I could be a victim of a grand prank collaborated together ingeniously. I kept thanking them, though. I kept working, too, on that report, until, a couple of hours later, I received an “official” text message informing me of the results of the awards. That was when I totally want to pass out with joy.

Well, that sounds like an overstatement. But really, I was so happy I have to work on the same report for three hours when, on normal days, it would have only taken me a little more than an hour. But then again, it was not a normal week. You see, just the previous night before the awards program, I received an email from Gadgets Magazine, informing me I was one of the top nine finalists in the nationwide search for the Good Blog Awards. My first thought was, as I’ve shared on my Facebook, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” So I slept on it and found the email still there the next morning. I even have to double check if it was spam. But it was not. Confirming two awards in one day simply made me want to roll over the floor then do a hundred jumping jacks.

The Cebu Media Excellence Awards had chosen my blog post, “[Readings in Philippine Literature: Graphic Novel # 1] The Mythology Class by Arnold Arre” as my winning entry while my Good Blog Awards entry was, “[Reflections] A new brand of reading advocates”. 

Here are the media releases about the two awards events for more information:

Cebu media shines in Globe Media Excellence Awards
Pinoy Blogfest 3.0 takes on the Digital Divide

At this point, I would like to thank each and everyone of you, including you reading this post now, for taking the time to visit my blog. Thank you to all who leave comments and take the time to connect with me. Thank you, too, for your support in my personal advocacies--books, reading, Philippine literature, short stories, and literacy--through blogging and social media. All glory to God!

My special thanks to Doris Mongaya and her team at PRWorks for delivering to me the trophy right at the doorstep of my office. Her company organized the spectacular Cebu Media Excellence Awards (spectacular because of what I see from the photos and the positive feedback I heard). My gratitude also goes out to Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. for the trainings, rapport, and support.  

What made last week even crazier was that I was inserted in the program as a speaker for the Social Good Summit Cebu held yesterday, giving me only four nights to prepare whatever I need to prepare to talk on “Inspiring Change through Blogging and Social Media.” I guess it turned out okay, even when it was my first time to speak before a crowd of bloggers and social media geeks.

Here is a copy of my “speech”:

Inspiring Change through Blogging and Social Media

You might ask, how does a book blogger treat herself/himself if she/he wins as a book blogger? In my case, buy more books! And I did. 

Last week ended beautifully... with my boyfriend giving me a handwritten love letter, the gift that bested all gifts last week (I'll keep the photo of the love letter to myself, thank you)!


- Nancy -

(P.S. I will be back to blogging about books and short stories in my succeeding posts.)