I'm Back!

It’s been awhile, but now that I’m finally finished with nerve-wracking college decisions, AP exams, scholarship applications, graduation speech writing, prom, my final band concert, a terribly long senior thesis, end of the school year awards, and my final day of high school, I can finally come back to my true passion: Miss Teen stuff!

I love this time of year, because not only does the end of the school year mean that I get my life back, but all of the preparations for this summer’s Miss Teen of America state pageants are well underway. Many readers of today’s blog may be first time visitors to the Miss Teen of America blogs, as there are a lot of potential candidates for this summer’s pageants preparing to make their final decision to compete! For anyone who is thinking about competing or knows that they will be competing this summer, I encourage you to check out my blogs about my different experiences, as well as the blogs of our state titleholders. In particular, I would point your attention towards the blogs from May and June 2009, especially “Still Unsure About the State Pageant? Just Do It!”, “Don’t Take it From Me!”, and “My Miss Teen of New York Experience”. If any candidates, potential or confirmed, have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me through this blog!

And now on to some recent news. Anyone who has kept up with this blog may remember the different events I’ve done with Reality Check and the Erie Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition. On Tuesday, June 8th, I attended the Tobacco-Free Coalition’s Award Ceremony in Westwood Park. It was so great having the ceremony at Westwood, because it was the first park to become officially, and legally, smoke-free. I had spoken to a number of legislators about passing a smoke-free parks initiative back in January, and to see if come to fruition is so rewarding. Alan Rubeck, my Reality Check supervisor of the last three years, presented me the award for Tobacco-Free Youth Advocate of the Year (pictured above). Alan spoke about all the things Reality Check had been involved in over the past three years I had been in it, many of the events involving my Miss Teen title, and to think that this ceremony would be my last Coalition event ever was so sad! I really wish the next generation of Reality Check members the best of luck in all their smoke-free endeavors.

Later that night, I attended Alden Middle School’s Eighth Grade Moving Up Ceremony. My old middle school guidance counselor had asked me to deliver the Key Note Address. Seeing all of my old teachers again, and sitting through the ceremony again was so bizarre and intense, what with my graduation from high school only a few weeks away. It didn’t seem like four years had already passed since I last sat in the eighth grader’s seats. I spoke about all of the opportunities open to them in high school, and how what they will do and who they become is entirely up to them. I also spent some time discussing how Alden Middle School and Alden High School shaped me into the person I’ve become, and how experiences at both schools helped me with many Miss Teen experiences.

A lot of “end-of-senior-year” things have happened since then, and they’ve reminded me of what a huge impact the Miss Teen of America program has had on my life. At my school, every senior creates a senior collage, full of pictures of them throughout their 18 years of life. While my senior collage (pictured above!) had the requisite cute baby pictures and embarrassing middle school pictures, it was also filled with Miss Teen pictures. There are bits of Australia, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, St. Paul, and New York in my collage, as well as cameos from so many of the amazing people I have met.

Within the last few weeks, there have also been a lot of articles that have come out, mainly about the top students in my class and top students in Western New York. For all of those articles, my bio is always filled with Miss Teen experiences. Generally, Miss Teen travels and events take up about half the bio, if not more.

Miss Teen has become such a huge part of my life. I can’t believe I’ll be handing off both of my titles within the next few months! In the mean time, I’ll keep busy. I’m currently making Fourth of July plans, and I also need to catch up on my Miss Teen scrapbook!

I think a few blogs about Australia are also in order. Australia: Day Six should be released within the next few days! Keep an eye out!