Miss Poulsbo 2013

I have always thought that pageants were for snobs that wear expensive dresses and think they deserve a crown, but last year I, for no reason aside for the fact that I had no better way to spend my time, decided I wanted to be in the running to become Miss Poulsbo 2013. When I began this program I thought it would be easy and quick, I never would have anticipated how much this experience would come to teach me. The Miss Poulsbo, Miss Kitsap, Miss Silverdale scholarship organization awarded three girls the title and took them on a years’ worth of appearances and community service. I started out on a need to know basis only which really only included phases of competition. The pageant is made up of six categories. Interview which accounts for 30% of your score, talent 25%, evening wear 20%, active wear 15%, on stage question 5%, and academic review 5%. I knew when I started that I was going to be far outside my comfort zone, but I was up for the challenge.

Our first meeting went smoothly. 20 girls and our program director/coordinator met for the first time at the sons of Norway in downtown Poulsbo. Of course going into this I had a slightly defensive mentality, after all this was a competition right? It did not take me long to realize these girls I would be spending so much time with were not someone I was competing against, but with. They were each as kind and nervous as I was. I quickly became acquainted with all of the contestants. Besides our weekly Sunday rehearsals we were all required to go to a number of “appearances” in our local community. These each varied in content but all had a common goal of becoming involved in the community.

Each of the contestants are required to put together a portfolio of themselves for the five judges to examine before the pageant. This consisted of a community service record, answered essay questions, and an essay of your platform and plan of action. We were explained that a platform is what you believe the community should reinforce, and your plan of action is how you’re going to persuade people to do this. This was the first lifelong lesson I learned from the pageant, how to love and care about my community. I have never given much thought whatsoever to trying to make a difference in the community. I never thought, or wanted for that matter, a chance to. This made me pull a one-eighty and made me fall in love with the idea of being able to impact our community positively. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to achieve if I were to win. I settled on involving kids in extracurricular activities. This had a number of positive effect on kids such as social, health, school, confidence, and so much more. I absolutely adored what I was enforcing and realized I enjoyed being so involved.

Aside from my platform, I was given many opportunities to involve myself with other community service events on our appearances. Many of them were dressing up as princesses for kids and painting their faces, but a lot of them were real work in the community. My favorite and most rewarding appearance was the “Habitat for Humanity” builds. This is where people who have a low income and cannot afford a house work to build houses with a large number of volunteer workers creating low income housing that they can afford. I am a hands on type of girl, so I loved this! I put on my gloves and tool belt and went to work. I was privileged to work side by side with a father building a home to house his two young daughters. This to me was life changing. I realized this is how so many people purely volunteer spend their time helping people build their homes. For no other reason than the satisfaction of helping someone else. This opened my eyes to so much compassion and kindness in people, and made me want to experience it over and over. I still spend weekends helping build houses, because this showed me there are ways for me, even without a title, to help my community.

 

Another segment of the pageant was obtaining 400$ worth of sponsors. I absolutely hated this portion. This required each girl to go around asking small businesses to sponsor them in the pageant for ad space in our program book. I am not good at asking for money, in fact, I hate it. Many of the girls had their parents or grandparents who owned businesses sponsor them. I however had no such luck. I had to endure the torture of being turned down repeatedly by owners of businesses I didn’t even know. I don’t blame them, either. I wouldn’t give money to a girl that walked into my business and asked for it. In the end, as last minute as possible, my aunt helped me get Adriana’s Salon in Poulsbo sponsor me on account of they were good friends. This, I believe, taught me how to handle rejection. I’m the type of person that can barely handle constructive criticism, let alone being told flat out no multiple times. Each time I had to remind myself I would do the same to someone I didn’t know.

Once the grueling task of acquiring sponsors was finally over I got to get to the fun, or rather scary, portions of the pageant. We all began putting together outfits for our opening number, active wear, on stage question, and everything else. Evening wear was a big deal. I wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of buying a big expensive dress, so I settled on buying a dress that I could wear for the pageant and also to my prom that was coming up. My grandmother took me to find a dress. The first place I went, second dress I tried on, I fell in love. As childish as it is I have always wanted a princess dress, and I found it. I felt beautiful in it, and that’s what mattered to me.

We all began practicing for our interviews by meeting with various previous Miss’s in an interview setting. They critiqued us and helped us improve. This came naturally to me because I love people and I’m a strong believer in communication. Although sometimes I would get stuck when asked a strange question I hadn’t anticipated. I had to find a solution. I began practicing way too much and trying much too hard. I finally realized pre planned answers were my downfall! If I believed in what I was saying the answers would flow naturally like they would in a conversation with a friend, and they did! I preformed my interview nearly flawlessly taking no more than a second to begin my reply. This was a big deal, because many girls had to take time to think about it. This allowed me to come across sure of myself and confident. I wasn’t only coming across this way, I was feeling this way. I learned to be confident and sure of myself. This helped me later on get a job, because I had experienced the interview processes quite in depth.

The last and most frightening thing I had to practice was my talent. This was the only time that I would be on stage alone for more than ten seconds. I am not a talented person, in fact you could almost say I have no talent, but they made me look like I did. This portion is judged on entertainment and personality. Lucky for me I could do both! I had a short dance choreographed for me to Chicago’s “Hot Honey Rag” that I had to rehearse over and over. I think I could do that dumb little dance in my sleep. Of course I’m not a dancer, so this involved a lot of the Charleston and winking. This was perhaps the most nerve racking and comfort breaking portion of the night. I had to learn how to overcome my fears. I have never been more afraid to do something in my whole life, but I finished it and ended up winning a 200$ scholarship for “Best Talent Performance”. Don’t ask me how.

Finally it was pageant night! I had performed everything I had been rehearsing for the last three months to a T. I more quickly than I imagined became used to being on stage and my nerves became less and less as the night went on. After I completed my talent it was smooth sailing from then on. My favorite part was evening wear. It was really gratifying hearing the audience gasp at me when the spotlight hit me and I began walking across the stage. I was judged on my poise, stage presence, gracefulness, and fluency. I don’t know how you can possibly judge these things, all I know is I was holding my breath, smiling, and thinking “Don’t trip” in my eight inch heels. This was just purely enjoyable for me, so much fun!

At last the time came to announce scholarships and winners. I won a 1,000$ scholarship from Olympic college for an essay I wrote and submitted. I won a 200$ scholarship called the “Gold Crown” award that was chosen by the previous Miss Poulsbo. And lastly my 200$ “Best Talent Performance” award. Eventually we got to the time where we announce the winners! There were only three! All twenty of us girls lined up on stage holding hands waiting to hear the winners. Miss Poulsbo was announced last because it was most important. It was finally time for Miss Poulsbo's results. She unfolded the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper. She read.."First runner up is.. Mackenzie Moody! The new Miss Poulsbo is Cam-" and then she paused, and immediately started apologizing taking it back! I was first runner up and Mackenzie had won. This was by far the hardest lesson I had to learn, losing gracefully. I looked over and she was crying, because she had thought she lost. I continued to smile and gave her a hug and said congratulations. I continued to smile as she was crowned. I can’t lie and say I wasn’t disappointed, but disappointment is a part of life. I was awarded another 1,000$ for being first runner up. After walking off stage I was greeted by packs of people I didn’t know telling me congratulations, I didn’t understand why, I lost. I realized though, there was something achieved that night. The pageant was a long process that took me through a metamorphosis as a person. I grew so much and learned countless life lessons. I wouldn't take back the experience for anything. In fact, I’m beginning my process in running again this year!