How do you describe the most amazing experience of your life to people who may never experience it? I just got home from an AWESOME weekend! As Miss Marion County Fair 2007, I got to compete in the 2008 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant. I am always asked when I say that I have a pageant coming up :: "Oh, so you're a 'pageant girl'?" - No. I am far from it. "I am a fair queen," I respond. "Oh, so you're a farmer and stuff?" - No. Far off again. I am the representative of my county fair. This means that while I did compete in a pageant to receive the title that I now hold, this pageant curcuit is more like applying for a job - a job that is the most rewarding year of your life. The state queen represents the entire state in agriculture, which is a huge position. As Marion County I am proud to represent 1 of 105 counties in Illinois. This weekend, I participated in this "job interview" or pageant competition as it was with the expectation of learning about myself and growing as a person. - Mission accomplished. Now, with this better understanding of what this "pageant" means, you should know (once again) that it was absolutely amazing! You have no idea how unbelievebly hard it is to stand up on a stage next to 66 gorgeous girls and pretend to feel 100% confident in yourself and your appearance! It requires you to be proud of what and who you are even though you feel inferior to the contestants standing next to you. This weekend I learned that it is ok to not be perfect. While this, I am sure, is not the end of my struggle with the term "perfection", I have definitely grown as a person and feel much more confident in who I am. This weekend I was able to sit back and relax through all of the stress, and if you know me, you know that is virtually impossible! I am a worry-wart and a half, but the past four days taught me otherwise. With Erin and Steph, I laughed and I cried, but mostly I laughed! It was definitely a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience, and I am surely sad to see it end. I know, though, that I am also ready to head back to school and face the semester to come. I finally believe strongly in myself as I once did, and I hope that I never lose such a vital part of myself again. Thank you to all of my wonderful girlfriends who came to cheer me on! It is honestly so difficult to explain to you how special that it was to me that you were in the crowd yelling for me. When we went out to eat, I swear that nothing else in the world mattered but that you all had already picked me for the top 12. I know that I laughed and tried to explain to you the magnitude of what you were saying... but you girls made my day! ALL that mattered to me in the WORLD was that I'd made you girls proud! Thank you so much! Also thank you to Erin and Steph! This weekend would never have been as special and as meaningful as it was without you both by my side! I appreciated every second of it :: From adding MORE lipstick to laughing in the bathroom to saying "pageant" in my sleep at 4:30 in the morning to finally puting on my slippers at the end of another long practice in heels, the time we spent together was amazing! I felt like a true queen the entire time I was there to the point that I'd forgotten who I was before I came. You made me feel like I deserved the best, and I now feel like I do... I will fight for nothing less. There is no way I could ever thank you enough for such an amazing time. With all of that said, I should get some sleep finally. Though I do not wear a crown on my head daily, I feel like royalty at heart and I plan to treat myself better from here on out. Once a queen... always a queen. | 
