C# - Dropdown - Get The Value Of The First Item In The List Regardless Of What Item Is Actually Selected

I have a drop down list control populated with items and some code to take the currently selected item value. The problem is I only get the value of the first item in the list regardless of what item is actually selected. Here is my code to populate the drop down:

protected void displayCreateCategories()
{
StoreDataContext db = new StoreDataContext();
var a = from c in db.Categories
orderby c.Name
select new{catName= c.Name,
catId=c.CategoryID};
ddlCategory.DataSource = a;
ddlCategory.DataTextField = "catName";
ddlCategory.DataValueField = "catId";
ddlCategory.DataBind();
}

To get the value of the currently selected item which in my case is always of type integer I do label1.text=Convert.toInt32(ddlCategory.SelectedValue); I get the selected value, but it is always for the 1st item in the list. I'm pulling my hair out over this.