eToday had been a surreal and exceptionally happy day; my spirits had been on a constant high all day. I just found out that the photo I took of me and my dog Mappy won the grand prize of Sony's 5.5 Pawgraphy Day contest! This came as a surprise as I already checked the winners at the end of May a couple of weeks ago and saw no sign of me. Well, in all honesty, Sony Philippines actually messaged me last week asking for details, and informing me that I was "one of the chosen winners", which to me at that point meant consolation prize. However, today, my friend Rey (who was actually the one who told me about the contest) slid into my DMs and congratulated me for winning the grand prize: the latest Digital Camera ZV-1! It was simply surreal, I mean other than winning the adorable dog lamp raffled last Christmas, I've never won anything this big in my life. That would normally sound sad but I'm so elated right now I don't even care! What's more amazing is that this win was not because of popularity. I checked the runners-up's entries and some of them had so much more likes than my entry.
The contest description reads: "5 May - 5.5 PAWGRAPHY DAY is a day to celebrate the love between our pets and us. Every day, amidst our busy lives, our pets wait patiently for their time with us. Waiting for us to come home. Waiting for us to spend time with them. To us, they are our fur-kids, fur-friends. To them, we are their everything. This is a day to remind us to show our affection to our furry friends and take stunning videos and photos together with them. Post them on social media and dedicate a heartfelt message to let the world know how much our furry friends mean to us." is open to a number of Asian countries and ten winner will be chosen from each: 1 grand winner and 9 runners up.
So for my entry, I channeled some of my frustrations when it comes to being the human companion of a mixed-breed dog. A mongrel. A native breed. An aspin.
I used to be upset when people would ask what Mappy's breed is, no matter how polite they do it. I felt that they needed to know first if he comes from a line of purebreds or a fancy exotic lineage before they can decide whether to like him or not. Truth is, I don't know and I don't really care. He is my bro, and I am his.
When I rescued Mappy, I learned that love knows no breed. We all fought our way to survive and thrive in this world, and Mappy is no different. I'm happy I gave him a chance to live again, because he did the same to me. I'm always gonna love you, bud.
This came as a total shock as I was expecting lots of pure-breeds with high end cameras and fancy productions will definitely dominate the contest. I was so humbled by such a recognition for doing such a simple thing on my Instagram, of all places. All I did was put on Mappy his formal wear I bought online a couple of years ago, put on one of my work shirts, sat on the carpet and set my camera phone on timer mode. I felt so amazed that some people even thought that it was a professional photoshoot on a studio. Anyway, I am counting the days that the prizes will arrive as I can't wait to get my hands on that awesome ZV-1.
[UPDATE] It's finally here! After some delay on delivery, I got my parcel this morning containing the prizes promised by Sony! I am so ecstatic it felt like Christmas morning from the 90s. Now I'm not really into this kind of techie stuff but the camera is one hell of a gadget I feel pressured to start a vlog or something. A friend of mine suggested a cooking vlog. Eh, maybe one of these days. I'm not really that type of millennial. It's so small and handy and I can't wait to go on a trip once once this pandemic is a thing of the past. Plus the design is black and slick. Thank you so much Sony Philippines. Also, on a side note, this is a perfect opportunity to promote the beauty of the aspin breed: a win against odds (inspired by Hidilyn Diaz's recent Olympic gold). Aside from the coolest camera in the world, I also got a chic-looking sling bag, and an authentic Sony face mask.
Now I know why my friend Rey constantly joins these kind of contests (and has developed amazing skills in photography after years of doing so). It just feels so surreal to receive something so valuable with nothing much but artistic skills and the perfect execution!
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