Hello Friends!
After ringing in the new year with my family, I spent the next three days finalizing all of my packing for Miss America. On the 3rd, many of my family and friends came to visit and wish me well. I tried my best to go to bed early that night, but as you can imagine, I tossed and turned the whole night in anticipation for the ten days ahead.
The morning of the fourth, my family and I loaded our FIFTEEN suitcases (yes, fifteen) into our big red Excursion and left for the airport. When we arrived at the airport, we were so thankful that we had left early because the line to check in at Southwest was soooooooo long!
After finally checking in, and getting through security, we were finally on our flight to Vegas! After checking into the Planet Hollywood, I got ready for a fitting with Miss America's brand new sponsor, Express, for our onstage question dresses.
While at the fitting with Express, each girl was interviewed and I got to be in the final edit! Check it out:
The next morning was the big moment! I would be checking in with the Miss America Organization to begin the 10 days I had dreamed about for years! Every emotion that you could possibly think of...I was feeling that night.
I was up extra early the next morning. After I prepped myself and all of my things I made my way to registration. I ran into a few of the other contestants that I was not able to connect with at the Express fitting. There was so much excitement filling up that room! I learned that my roommate was Miss Kansas, Carissa Dawn Kelley. I had not gotten the chance to meet her at the Teen pageant in August so I was excited to get to know her! After registration, I filmed two interviews. The first one was for the interviews that would be shown on the Miss America live telecast. The second interview was for ontheredcarpet.com
You can view it here:
After my interviews, I checked into my room, and dressed for the Arrival Ceremony. The ceremony was exciting! It was the first time that we were all together since August.
Here is the link to the Arrival Ceremony:
After the ceremony, we had a welcome meeting with the hostesses and members of the Miss America Board of Directors.
That next day was filled with more interviews and the Express Fashion Show! I had watched the Miss America show online year after year and I couldn't believe that I was there representing my state! We all felt like super stars as we strutted our stuff on the runway that elevated from the basement! You can catch the end of the fashion show here:
After the fashion show, we were treated to dinner at Buca Di Beppo! While at dinner we were asked to dip our hands into spaghetti sauce and leave our handprints on a giant peace of canvas that would be hung in the restaurant as a souvenir from our visit. How fun!
The next morning all of the contestants had an Ihop Breakfast. A few Children's Miracle Network families were also in attendance. The breakfast was delicious and we had loads of fun flipping pancakes!
That rest of the day was spent in rehearsal. Although it was a lot of work, it was a great time to bond and get to know the other girls...and not to mention a great work out! We danced from the morning until the evening. The producers had a new concept for the opening number this year. We would be filming a flash mob type number in various locations throughout Vegas. The first group would consist of nine girls and grow from there and I was in the first group! The following day, we would be filming all day at the locations.
That night we had the amazing opportunity to watch The Phantom of the Opera at The Venetian hotel. I was ecstatic about this appearance because this show is one of my all time favorite Broadway shows!
I was up and ready by 6:15 that morning to film the first shot of the day at the Hoover Dam. It was a neat experience having curious people watch us dance and be filmed. Miss America, Teresa Scanlan was there. We had time to hang out with her and listen to stories about her year.
Each time we moved to a different location another group of 9-10 girls would join us. By the time we were done filming, I was exhausted. We arrived back to the Planet Hollywood around 10:30 and I was ready for bed!
The next day was the first day of my competition! I had interview in the early afternoon. I had my makeup done by my makeup artist Carrie Brown. My interview was great! I enjoyed the judges and I felt very strong after the interview. I then joined the other contestants at rehearsal.
The following day, Tuesday, January 10th, was the first day of preliminaries. I was so excited to finally be on the stage. I competed in onstage question that night. After the pageant, I was ecstatic to see all of my friends and family at visitation.
I woke up the next morning overwhelmed with excitement for the second night of preliminaries. I was to compete in swimsuit and evening wear. Of course, the afternoon was filled with more rehearsals, but as soon as we were released to get our makeup and hair done, my heart began racing. It was not racing out of nervousness, but rather for complete and total happiness. All of the hard work that I had put into the six years that I had competed at Miss Florida up until then was all for those few minutes on stage. As we performed our opening number that night, I was beaming and as I competed in swimsuit and evening wear, I was overflowing with happiness, joy, and pride.
After the show, I ran to visitation. As soon as I saw everyone I burst into tears of joy. There are no words to explain how absolutely happy I was that night. I knew that I had left my heart and soul on the stage and I couldn't have asked for more out of my Miss America experience thus far. I went to bed that night with a smile.
Thursday night, the last night of preliminaries, I competed in talent. I was a bit anxious as the day unfolded. Once the show started that night, I felt calm and confident. I sang my talent piece "Gold" effortlessly. It was the best I had ever sung it. As soon as I finished performing, I knew that I had nailed it. At that very moment I knew that my preliminary competitions were over. My scores were in. I had to trust in God's plan.
More people had arrived to come and watch me that night so I had even more friends and family to visit with at visitation! I was elated!
This night was an extra late night. By the time I was in bed it was 1:30 AM and guess what time I was up! 4:00 AM! Haha! Miss Texas, Kendall Morris, and I had been chosen to do a Satellite Media Tour on behalf of Artistry Cosmetics, who is an official sponsor of Miss America. Kendall and I participated in over 20 radio and television interviews that morning. I was able to find one of the interviews that was posted on YouTube!
After the interviews, Kendall and I went straight to rehearsal. After rehearsals, all of the contestants attended a gala called "The Evening of Dreams." We were introduced along with our Executive Directors. It was a great time for us to relax and have fun! Many former Miss America's were in attendance and I had a blast meeting all of them!
Ahhhhhh! The day had finally come! It was Saturday, January 14th! A new Miss America was going to be crowned! I remember feeling peaceful the entire morning and afternoon before the show.
We watched the opening number that we had filmed almost a week ago as we waited backstage. We laughed at some of the silly moments that only we knew had happened. At the same time as watching this, we watched a clock that was counting down the minutes to showtime. As soon as ten seconds were left on the clock we all counted out loud. This was it! We were live!
It was a surreal experience looking out into the sold out 7000 seated auditorium knowing that millions of people were also watching us across the nation! I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I had made the top fifteen. I didn't know what the judges thought about my performance throughout the week. All I knew at that moment was I that I felt complete. Nothing mattered more to me than the fulfilled heart that I had at that very moment.
Little did I know that my feelings of fulfillment would be expounded on! I was the third contestant called into the top 15! I couldn't believe it! Out of 53 contestants, I was chosen to be in the top 15! Competing in swimsuit that night was so much fun! Here is a YouTube video of the swimsuit competition taken from the live telecast:
As I waited on stage with the rest of the top 15, to hear who had made the top 12, I did my best to take in everything that I was seeing around me. I wanted to make sure that I took instant snapshots to save into my memory bank, but I was soon interrupted when I heard "Miss Florida, Kristina Janolo," as the seventh name called into the top 12! Needless to say, I freaked out. Hahaha! I was so excited to compete in evening wear. My absolute favorite part of competition! Here is the link to the evening wear competition:
Unfortunately, I was not able to perform my talent that night but it truly was not unfortunate when I thought about how far I had made! I was overcome with pride even before I made the top 15, knowing that I was one out of 53 women that were chosen to compete at Miss America. Then to come into the TOP 12 was more than I could have imagined. What an honor and a blessing it truly was! All of my hard work had paid off. I had a blast cheering on my friends that continued to compete! Just like the rest of the contestants I was anxious to find out who our new Miss America was going to be. It was such a neat experience watching the top five, being brought down to two. When it came down to Miss Wisconsin and Miss Oklahoma, I had no idea what to expect because both of these young ladies were incredible! As Laura, Miss Wisconsin was called as Miss America, I couldn't have been more happy for her!
CONGRATULATIONS LAURA!!! You will be an incredible Miss America!
My Miss America was more than I dreamed it would be! I miss my Miss America Class of 2012 sisters everyday and wish them all the best as they complete their final months as their state titleholders!
