Well I have to start off this post with some background information for the first 4 photos. When I was 15 years old I competed at large for the very first Miss Michigan's Oustanding Teen Pageant in 2006!! At the pageant orientation Miss America 2006 Jennifer Berry was there to speak at a brunch teen to all of the teen contestants about her journey to Miss America! She spoke about how when she was younger she was picked on all the time and was always taller than all of her classmates including the boys. As I listened to her story, I realized she was really telling mine. I never knew that it had bothered me as much as it did because I buried it so deep that I didn't even realize it myself. After the brunch we teens lined up to go in a room to greet her and get an autograph and picture with her. I was the very last contestant to go into the room to meet her and while I attempted to gain my composer that was to no avail. I'm pretty sure the first words that came out of my mouth was "I was tall too." Thankfully she knew what I meant. Jennifer is one person who truly changed my life for the better! If it weren't for her I would not be the person I am today!! I must say that seeing her 5 years later was a big deal for me and it meant that world to see her again!
Miss America 1968!
Katie Harmon (Miss America 2002) remembered me from roughly 6 years ago when I met her at a conference! I was impressed with her memory from the thousands of people she has met throughout the years!! She is such an amazing woman and I loved seeing her again!! She was so sweet!!
Katie and me!!!
Erika Harold Miss America 2003!! Super sweet and had such nice things to say!!
Dougy!!!!
The passionate and amazing Michigan director Shelley Taylor!!!
Oh my goodness there are truly NO words to fully describe my experience at Miss America, especially being the 90th Anniversary!!! What a great year to attend and see all the formers at the same time especially for my first time ever going!! There were 48 former Miss America's to celebrate the 90th Anniversary and let me tell you, they kept those ladies busy!!!!
I had so many life changing moments during the week of Miss America that I wouldn't trade for anything!! I met all of the Miss America's that had a chance to be there and SO many of them were extremely complimentary, supportive, and encouraging to me!! It was always funny when most of them asked me right off the bat "Do you compete? You must. You are gorgeous!!" which was so sweet of them to say!!! I have to admit though my favorite moment with a former Miss America was with Jennifer Berry!! The last chance I had to see her in person was at the second autograph signing where Doug (a wonderful field director for Michigan) gave me a beautiful picture of Jennifer in her evening gown to sign. She wrote on it "To Elizabeth, you are beautiful on the inside and out, a true Miss America! : )" Reading that brought tears to my eyes and I'm going to frame and cherish this photo forever!!! As I have explained above she has truly inspired me and has always encouraged me to never give up!! It took her 5 years to win Miss OK and then became Miss America (and I can remember her crowning like it was yesterday, before I even knew her personally I was hoping she was going to win and then she did!)
I was at the pageant January 12th through the 15th! So while I did not see the very first preliminary night I did see the other two as well as part of their rehearsals to get a background taste of what it's like to be at Miss America!! I learned alot just watching how the pageant is conducted and the order that they go in for competition! Now I must say these girls were absolutely GORGEOUS and extremely talented and intelligent!! Seeing it live is SO much better than watching it on TV! I know I recorded it so I could see the difference! LOL!!
I even saw some celebrities while I was there!! This one is embarassing to say, but while Franny and I were on the elevator going back to our hotel room the pageant's host Chris who is the host of the Bachelor was in the elevator! I don't watch The Bachelor so I didn't recognize him and Franny didn't either, but you could tell he was a celebrity just by his confidence and the way he conducted himself. Once he left we looked at each other and asked who was that?!! I know it's sad!!! Once we were back to the room we looked at the Miss America book and found out who he was! If we had known that we probably would have tried to get a photo with him!! I also saw Terry Fator who won America's Got Talent a few years ago as well as Holly Madison!!
Let's just say that the stage was PHENOMINAL!!! Oh my goodness it was stunning!! They really did go all out for the 90th anniversary show! I was very impressed with it!! I am glad that ABC finally got back together with the Miss America pageant! The last year that MAO was on TLC we had 4.5 Million viewers...well this year on ABC we had 7.11 Million viewers! Now that says alot, don't you think!? : ) It's also great to show America that a young woman can be successful, as most of you know our newly crowned Miss America is only 17 years old! How impressive!! When she speaks you forget her age and that truly expresses something about our new Miss America! It will be amazing to see her develop and grow throughout the year as she represents our country with intelligence and grace!! Oh and I must say that I am extremely happy that Miss America went back to the traditional top 15 to top 10 to top 5!! I have always loved that last moment of 2 girls facing each other waiting for their name to be called Miss America! I find it more suspenseful (that's just my opinion) as well as it's nice for the two of them to bond in that moment and know that they are that much closer to a dream come true! So thank you Miss America for keeping things relevant, yet traditional, in all the right ways!!! I was extremely impressed this year and if it is God's will maybe someday I will have the honor to compete for my beautiful state of Michigan at Miss America!!!
