Celebrate Yourself
This past Friday I was in Winston-Salem on a trip with my photography class. As we walked down the stairs of the Reynolda House to the “Black is Beautiful” exhibit, my watch started to buzz.
As I looked at my watch, I saw I was receiving a call from an unknown number. Focused on the exhibit, I declined the call. I forgot about it.
About an hour later, I exited the exhibit and walked to my car. I sat down, buckled up, and took out my phone to start playing music.
As I opened my phone, I saw a ‘2’ next to the phone app. I had completely forgotten about the call I had received.
Confused as to why I had two notifications, I opened the app and saw I had both a missed call and voicemail from this unknown number.
I opened the voicemail. It played and I listened.
“Hi Joe! This is Tara Morgan with NBCUniversal. Give me a call back when you can. Thank you!”
Anxiety ran through my veins. Was something wrong? I had been interviewing for a position at NBC News, but I was not supposed to hear back from them for another week to two weeks.
I called her back.
“Hello this is Tara,” she said.
“Hi Tara, this is Joe Maronski returning your call. I am so sorry I missed your call. I was actually at an art exhibit and didn’t realize it was you,” I said.
“Oh no worries,” Tara said. “I am actually calling because I spoke to Morgan (Morgan is the lady who had interviewed me) and…”
She paused for probably 0.2 seconds to grab a breath, but to me it felt like an eternity and it is better for the dramatic effect of this blog post.
“I have some great news. We would love to extend you an offer to be the Political Unit Intern this summer at the NBC News D.C. Bureau.”
At this point, I kind of blacked out and tears just started running so I can’t really tell you how the rest of the call went.
All I know is that I accepted it.
I don’t write this post to brag or to just say that I got an internship. I write this post to say celebrate yourself.
So often, people fear sharing good news because they don’t want to be perceived as bragging. They are nervous about what people might think or say about their news.
I was this way myself for so long. But it is not worth it.
You worked hard for what you got. You earned that good news. You deserve to celebrate that good news.
Yes, bragging is a thing. However, knowing the difference between celebrating yourself and bragging is a valuable skill.
You need to celebrate yourself in a job interview, in a meeting, in a professional setting and even in private settings at times.
Start now.
Start learning how to celebrate yourself. Start learning how to fight for yourself.
Like the pillars in the NBC News D.C. Bureau from the first photo say, be honest, be tenacious and be courages. But also be you.
