And, we’re back in Australia. Only in the blogging world, sadly, though.
Odd as it may seem, I only have one picture from that Friday because we were just so BUSY! And there’s no way I could ever, ever post that picture, because it shows Steffanie exaggerating the hay fever she got after we rode the harvestors, and she would absolutely fly to New York and murder me in my sleep.
But, on to the day’s events.
We woke up fairly early and headed over to the same hotel that the anniversary dinner had been held at for the final piece of the Miss Wagga Wagga Quest judging: interviews.
I was ushered upstairs to a conference room to meet with the other judges, while Steffanie and Deidre stayed in the lobby to welcome the candidates as they arrived for their interview appointment time, and to do some secret judging.
My fellow judges were very impressive. There were two people from the local business community, a former Miss Wagga Wagga, and an high up executive from Quantas, Australia’s largest airline and a long-time supporter of the Quest. Before the first interview, we went over the questions we would ask, divvied them out among ourselves, and agreed that we could ask whatever follow-up questions we deemed necessary. I was to ask each candidate how they would describe certain Australian current events and hot topics to foreigners, such as myself. Afterall, the Miss Wagga Wagga and Community Princess of this year’s Quest would be going on a trip to Germany!
The interviews soon got underway. Each interview was about 30 minutes long, which is quite a bit of time for these girls to get grilled! I felt very comfortable interviewing the candidates, seeing as I’ve had experience interviewing at Miss Teen and Distinguished Youth of Texas. It was a slightly different experience, seeing as the candidates weren’t teens or kids. But I could identify with their jitters and nerves, as I’ve gone through a similar interview process many times now.
The interviews were nice because I got to know the girls more. I had met most of them at official events throughout the week, but hadn’t gotten the chance to really talk to a lot of them. I got to know where they worked, what they supported, and what they thought about Wagga Wagga.
At the end of the day’s interviews, the judges and I had to deliberate. It wasn’t easy. There was a lot riding on our scores, as this was the final judging the girls would face before the next day’s Miss Wagga Wagga Quest ceremony. They had worked extremely hard from May until November, and whoever would win on Saturday could count on their life being greatly impacted.
Phillip met up with Deidre, Steffanie, and myself once judging finished. We headed over to a giant arts and crafts fair that was being held, featuring lots of products unique to Wagga Wagga. We then had to run some last minute errands to prepare for the next day’s big ceremony! Before heading home, we stopped at the pharmacy to get something to hopefully help Steffanie with her hay fever. As it turns out, the pharmacist was the mother of one of The Wiggles. (Rumor has it, the yellow one.) Only in Wagga Wagga, right?
We returned to the Tome home for a nice family night. We prepared some things for the next day, I worked on my speech for the final ceremony, and we just enjoyed each other’s company for one of the last times!
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