A Glimpse at my first year in pageants!

I have been meaning to publish this blog post for a while now, so... here it is:

A few days ago, I was honored to win the title of Miss Greater Jonesboro, a preliminary to the Miss Arkansas 2012 pageant.

The wining of my second title in the Miss America system has me reflecting upon my first year of involvement in the MA system which began Aug. 24, 2010.

I picked Aug. 24,2010 because it is a solid date that I can refer to, in truth, my journey towards my current involvement in the Miss America System began long before this point and when following a series of events can be traced all the way back to, well...my birth (and probably even before then)

(My pageant story is told in full on my website: www.wix.com/artisann010/miss-crowleys-ridge-2011)

But, I digress.

What happened August 24. 2010?

Well, on that lovely day, I competed in and won my first pageant. I became Miss Mississippi County Fair (yes, that's a mouthful) and from that day on, I have moved further and deeper into the world of pageantry and loved it more each step of the way.

So, rather than turn this past year into a novel length post, I will do a brief month by month recap of my first year in pageants.

August 2010

- I competed in and won the title of Miss Mississippi County Fair!

September 2010

- I competed in my first Miss Arkansas preliminary, Miss Northeast Arkansas and won 2nd Runner Up!

October 2010

- I competed in the Miss Arkansas State Fair pageant with over girls from all over the state of Arkansas.

side note: Met two future friends here (Latasha Briscoe and Kelsey Dow, I love both of you ladies!)

November 2010

- I competed in my second Miss Arkansas preliminary, Miss Lights of the Delta and won 3rd runner up.

December 2010

- I competed in my third Miss Arkansas preliminary, Miss Crowley's Ridge and was privileged to win the title!

So, without planning to, I competed in five pageants in five months!

After winning my title, the real work began:

PAPERWORK

APPEARANCES

FITTINGS

COACHING

FITNESS TRAINING

April 2011

- I was a guest performer at the Miss Greater Jonesboro Pageant

- I was a guest performer at the Miss Cotton Belle pageant

May 2011

- The Miss Arkansas Contestant Meeting!

July 2011

- Miss Arkansas' Outstanding Teen

MISS ARKANSAS!!!

- After many months of planning, working, saving, and spending, I had a fantastic time in my first Miss Arkansas week, July 10-16th. I met some wonderful people, including all 45 of the other contestants, learned a great deal, and truly enjoyed myself.

- At the end of the week, I walked away having developed new friendships, set new goals, and having been inspired by the people and the system I have the honor of participating in.

- At Miss Arkansas I competed (with group B) in:

Interview

Evening Gown

Talent

Swimsuit

Onstage Question

I won -

Alpha (or Newcomer) Talent

Overall Talent

Best Instrumentalist

and

Top 15

I still get emotional sometimes when I think about it. There is just no describing how thrilling it is to see your hard work pay off!

I could spend another entire blogpost saying thank you to all those whose assistance, encouragement, finances and expertise were lent to make this such a great experience for me, and I'm sure I will, but for now, thank you all sincerely, and I look forward to another great year in pageants!!!




God Bless,


Bethany

Beauty...inside and out!

This past week, I had the delightful opportunity to assist in a local community event that partners pre-teen/early teen girls and guys with local stores that give them the chance to break away from the norm of every day life, shake things up, and have a little fun.

I was asked to come, as Miss Crowley's Ridge, and assist with the young ladies who came into our main street store Me and My Sister/Merle Norman (Clothing, accessories, makeup...), in giving them makeovers! Let me say, over the next hour and a half, I gained a much deeper respect for the task our fabulous makeup/hairdressers at Miss Arkansas daily undertake in prepping us to look our absolute best.

There were 12 young ladies that participated and three of us doing the makeovers, so I had the chance to work with several of them and we truly had a great time. Talking, laughing, and me fixing my uh-oh's with my "MAGIC CREAM" (some skin lotion that was particularly adept at removing wayward mascara!

Here are some pictures of us:

This sweet girl was my second makeover to do and I was so happy that she was pleased with the end result; as was I.

This young lady, at 13, told me she was always used to doing her own makeup, almost daily, so I was a little nervous about meeting her expectations. However, when I was finished she was quite pleased! (and I was relieved, lol)

This lovely girl reminded me of my own sister, Mercy, as, even without heels on, she is just as tall as me! (Thanks goodness for that crown, giving me a couple extra inches!)

This sweet young girl, overheard me telling someone else who I thought their "Celebrity look-a-like" was and insisted I come up with one for her as well. So, I settled on Maggie Gylenhaal.

This young lady was my final charge, and biggest challenge. She, and it seemed her friends as well, didn't think she was the "type" for makeup. She told me

her favorite pastimes were skateboarding, playing the drums, and basketball. So, as I began applying her foundation, ten other eager faces crowded around wondering how this was going to turn out. And, my young muse, although she laughed it off, seemed rather skeptical as well.

However, in the end, we were triumphant, and everyone was truly delighted (and not surprised at all...of course)

As the event came to a close, I gave each of the young ladies homemade sugar cookies shaped like lips with a verse attached to the outside that looked like this:

It reads: Proverbs 6:8 ...I open my lips to speak what is right.

With this, I hope to remind each of these young ladies that beauty is not only found on the outside, but by what comes from the inside as well.