Check it

I got invited to an Awards banquet.  The last banquet I had to attend was a Scholarship Recognition Dinner, and I wrote about it here.  Point:  It was awful and I hated it. 

This Awards banquet was different.  First off, it was a Student Leadership Awards Banquet.  Instantly I thought, "Well, I don't qualify."  I am a good student, yes, but I have intentionally shied away from any kind of leadership.  We have an ITP Club, where all the dedicated students go and take part in leadership.  I never went.  Not once.  I helped out when they had events that I was already attending, but I never went above and beyond.

So I was super curious about this award.  Seemed to me that I was only 50% worthy.

Another difference:  I didn't feel obligated to go.  I had class that night, and I could have chosen to go to that.  But the dinner was at Summit, the college's fancy schmancy restaurant where all the chefs-in-training cook and charge way too much for it.  I've always wanted to check it out, but been too cheap to do it.  Dinner for free at the restaurant I've been wanting to go to?  Yes, please!

And the whole thing was delightful!

My friend and one of my small-scale heros, Betsy, was nominated also.  Rob, Betsy, and I hung out and chatted and enjoyed our dinner and had a great time.  Our advisor, Dawn, showed up after some time, and it was nice to chat with her, too.  She's a very busy person, so having some slow one-on-one time in a social setting was awesome.

Then the awards started.  Each nominee went up to the front of the room with their advisor who said some very nice and personal things about the student.  It was heart-warming to hear these stories, and you could tell that the advisors were proud of the students' accomplishments.  Betsy's was one of my favorites, because she's an amazing person and every word Dawn said I was thinking, "Yep.  Yep.  So true." 

I was also thinking, in the back of my mind, "I'm screwed."  All these stories were about students being really involved, and again, I was not.  I was interested to see what my advisor would say about me.  Maybe, "Tamra wasn't involved, but we like her anyway..."

I was in a different category of awards.  Division Awards.  That's all it said on the program.  But then they got to my group and they announced my award as the Outstanding Graduate Award.  I was like, "Oh!  That's the answer."  I WAS only being recognized for the 50% I could legally claim as mine.  Excellent.

It was really nice to have a room full of people hear about my accomplishments.  I'm proud of my time at Cincinnati State, and I worked hard to be a great student.  I liked that my hard work was acknowledged and appreciated publicly.

And hats off to Dawn, who wrote the best kind of Praise Paragraph:  The kind I would have written myself, had I been asked to do so.  She didn't include my GPA (I hate that kind of stuff being announced), she mentioned my family (it was the only one that did, out of 30-something students), she applauded my hard work and good attitude, and she mentioned my time at the "most difficult Practicum site" where I performed very well.  Awesome.

I signed to Dawn, across the table, "I'm glad you didn't put in my GPA."  She signed back, "I wanted to talk about your skill in ASL and as an interpreter, and your great attitude.  Your GPA wasn't the point."  I signed back, "Thank you."  Because I'm pretty sure that's all you say in a situation like that.

So, if you come to my Graduation Party (May 4th, 4:00, my house), you can see the award yourself.  Hold it in your hands and all that.  ...  Did you notice they even spelled my name right?  Score.