Rewarding passions

I have probably told Jimmy Mirikitani's story a hundred times since I had the chance to meet him through my job as a writer for the Northwest Asian Weekly in 2006. The film about his life was already beginning to win awards and touch people everywhere it was presented. Nothing could take away his passion for drawing, not wars or homelessness or loss of everything and everyone. This fall, when I won third place in Best Art Story for the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association competition with my story about him, the full circle of the modern day battle cry--follow your passion--spread over my thoughts. No one sent me to meet him. I had pushed to do the story, as I had with all the awards I have won in journalism--each one earned with the itchy edge of desire and curiosity that fuels my days.

Another award for that competition was for Best Page Design, the small, small thing I love doing. I recalled the picture on the page of spelling bee winner, Jason Pu. How beautiful and stunned he looked when he won the competition in Seattle. I had fallen in love with the moment I witnessed in the picture of him and his mother, and fussed with the edit of the picture--way too long. I reworked the type and bugged the editor for a better headline, called for more images. And won, for everyone, in the end.

So I go on digging and pushing and revealing these moments in our lives with words, pictures and those small, small things that grow big and flower in the sunlight of our hearts and minds. Thanks Jason and Jimmy. I am there with you.