| An Adventure in Pageantry: Diary of a first time live pageant contestant. |
| This series of articles was originally written for the now-defunct online pageant magazine, "Crown Jewels", a publication that will be missed greatly. |
| August 2001 |
| A week or so ago, I was trying to find a way out of writing this article, because I'd pretty much given up on entering a pageant. "I'm too fat," I thought to myself. "And what if I stutter all through my interview? This is ridiculous, I'm not doing it." But then an email from my friend Michelle arrived, and another from my Ms. American States director, Chris. Just friendly notes, filling me in on some appearance information and asking how everything was going. Suddenly, I felt terrible - I'd told all of these people, my friends, about my plans to enter - what on earth would I tell them when they asked about the Miss Alaska preliminary? In the middle of my turmoil, my mom broke through with the magic words - Hallelujah! Maybe all the walking and water was beginning to pay off after all. So here I am again, ready to update you on my progress. Swimsuit: Agh! Still as scary as ever. I seem to be slimming down, though, which is wonderful news. Enough progress in this area to make me feel really good. As the VeggieTales sing, "Keep walking...." Interview: I haven't done much work in this area - I'm mostly waiting until I get back to Alaska (I'm travelling at the moment) and can work with some friends of mine who have more experience with pageants than I do. I am constantly working to improve my speech, however, and have been taking every opportunity I can to work on my conversational skills. Talent: Ashamed to say that I have barely looked at the monologue I originally chose as my talent. To tell the truth, I feel a little intimidated by it. Tonight, though, I stumbled onto another monologue that might work very well for me. So what's the plan now? Lern 'em both and have my pageant-savvy friends help me choose! Eveningwear: No change. I've been travelling, so I haven't had a chance to go shopping. Aside from the four basic categories, two other issues are filling my brain. First, I've decided that I definitely want my platform to deal with service dogs for people with disabilities. It's something close to my heart, and something that I really feel is important. And second? Thanks to a camper's wardrobe of tee-shirts, I have an awful from-the-elbow-down tan. Anyone know of a good self-tanner? Reporting from a motorhome somewhere in Washington, this is Summer Horton! |
| "Have you lost weight?" |