Near the end of the first month of my freshman year I was gathering dirty laundry from around my room for a weekend visit home.

Just as I attempted to shove four weeks of clothing into a 2-foot-tall basket, the phone rang.

I don’t remember the lady’s name on the other line, but I’m almost sure she was with the University Times. I was so confused by all the different newspapers on campus back then, it was sometimes hard to remember which one I worked for.

Anyway, she was calling to interview the winner of the Don Jackson Award for Writing Excellence, a $1,000 scholarship given to an Iowa State journalism student each year.

I actually wasn’t aware that I had won anything, so I asked if she was sure she had the right guy. So we verified a few things:

“Are you a journalism student?” she asked. Just having changed majors, I answered with an enthusiastic yes.

“Are you a reporter for the Iowa State Daily?” she continued. Of course, I even made front page a few times.

“Have you applied for any awards recently?” Well, not that I knew of, but it was possible. I did win a reporter award that week at the Daily, but I thought for sure it was only like a $5 or $10 bonus, not $1,000.

And I was always winning things in high school I never applied for, like Most Likely To Never Get Married and Most Obnoxious.

Well, the nice lady on the phone figured the scholarship committee must have informed the press before the actual recipient, so we went on with the interview and I answered all of her questions with profound statements.

I thanked my family, God and my high school journalism teacher. I talked about how it was the sound of Nirvana roaring from my teacher’s radio that drew me into a newsroom for the first time.

It was truly like accepting an Oscar, only Billy Crystal wasn’t there cracking jokes.

After the interview, I called about everyone I could think of.

During my senior year of high school, I had enough scholarship rejections to wallpaper my room — so you can imagine how excited I was to tell my parents.

That weekend was great. I had the rare mentality that money is no object. When $1,000 awards are just handed over to freshman who think the inverted pyramid is a European monument, it was an easy mentality to sink into.

I took the family out to dinner, bought a few CDs, went to a couple movies at the full-price theater, the entire time waiting for Robin Leach from “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” to show up and interview me.

Well, I went back to school on Sunday and good ol’ reporter lady had left a message on my answering machine.

Turns out, there was an Iowa State student by the name of Corey Ross who just happened to live the same life as me.

I guess the punk had just retired from the Daily to work for the Des Moines Register (like he needed any cash).

I never did hear from that reporter again, but I was introduced to Mr. Ross a few years later and he seemed to think the story was pretty funny.

Well, Mr. Ross and Ms. reporter lady, I have been craving revenge ever since I pushed play on my answering machine that hazy fall Sunday.

Last week, I finally got a taste.

After three consecutive years of applying, the Greenlee School of Journalism awarded me and another Daily editor the Don Jackson Award for Writing Excellence.

Yeah baby, you know my name.

---

Corey Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale. He is the Arts & Entertainment editor of the Daily.