Are You Not Entertained?! Winning an Award at the KBlog Awards

You might be shocked to learn that I used to do pageants. It is, in fact, partially how I managed to graduate college debt free. One thing about pageants I noticed (aside from butt glue) is that when the girls won, they always managed to make that oh my gosh I’m SO surprised, but I actually totally expected this so I’m going to smile and wave like it’s no big deal face. I, however, never really mastered that look, mostly because I honestly never expected to win anything. So, if I did win something, my face was usually just a combination of confusion, disbelief, and wait, you’re joking right?!

I imagine this was probably about the same expression on my face last night in Seoul when they announced my blog’s name as the winner of the “Most Entertaining Blog” category of the Korea Observer’s KBlog Awards. We’ll never know exactly how my face looked, though, because the one friend I brought with me to the ceremony was in the bathroom at the time. Womp womp.

 

At least in pageants the winners can just smile and wave–they don’t have to give a speech. The same cannot be said for the KBlog Awards. Since I had been genuinely convinced that I would not win (and had made sure to tell everyone that I just knew I wasn’t going to win) it did not even cross my mind to come up with a brief acceptance speech. So onto the stage this little awkward duck waddled, and the first thing she said into the microphone was, “So, um, apparently most of you have never heard of my blog”.

I said this because, literally, every time I had introduced myself and my blog to someone before the awards, they had said, “Oh! I’ve never heard of it!” Simon (of The Secret Map) told me it’s probably because I don’t spam enough. Must spam more, I told myself.

 

So I stuttered through a few more words to accept the award–I actually have no idea what I said, I could have hiccuped and done the chicken dance for all I know–and took a seat, giddy as hell.

 

There were probably about 100 people in attendance and between the award announcements there were comedian acts and live music. It was a fun, well-organized event and I was so excited to get to be a part of it. I didn’t get the opportunity to mingle with the other bloggers much since I had to leave immediately to go to my friend’s birthday party, so as a shout out to anyone who was there, please introduce yourself, I’d love to connect with you (and spam you, as Simon says I should. Kiddingggggg! Sort of).

 

Winning an award as “Most Entertaining” is kind of a lot of pressure. I mean, I feel like I need to live up to this now! When I first started this blog I only wanted to write about my adventures with the hope of inspiring a few people to travel. I never expected people to actually read it and even find it funny or entertaining, but I’m really enjoying how it’s developing. I guess it’s a good thing that my life is generally ridiculous and provides for a lot of entertaining material.

The best thing about going to the awards was seeing all the faces behind blogs I’ve read and enjoyed. Sometimes when I see a popular blog post online the person behind it can seem so surreal, like they are just way too cool for me to ever meet and talk to. It was great to see that these bloggers are normal people–be it extraordinarily talented people–that maybe I’m cool enough to be friends with, after all.

 

Congratulations to everyone who participated, here’s the link to the list of winners . And thanks to the Korea Observer for hosting the event and giving me an excuse to walk around shouting like a gladiator: