Wednesday, August 15, 2012

NAM Weekend

Well, a few weeks ago, I was in a pageant called National American Miss. It was a 2 day competition in which we were judged on poise/presentation, interview skills, personal introduction, and other various competitions. It was held at the lovely DoubleTree by Hilton in Bloomington.  

To prepare for this event, I had to get a few new items,
Some white tennis shoes (or in this case basketball shoes)

Some new earrings, and a new dress that we'll look at later

Oh also there's a panda. 

DAY ONE.
Day one, hardly counts as a day because it was the travel, check-in, and a small party day. It took forever to get all checked in but that was alright. I couldn't figure out where exactly the party was in the building, so I ended up getting a bit lost and being 10 minutes late, but nonetheless it was fun. 

 DAY TWO.
Day two was Orientation, Spokesmodel Competition, and Formal Wear Competition

Someone had fun with the camera I gave them.. 


A lovely picture of me giving my speech about success. Funny story here; all of the people who did this competition (which were 8 girls in my division) gave their written/typed speech to a staff member who put the stack of speeches on the podium. Once you were done with your speech, you would take your paper and then it'd be ready for the next person. Given that my last name starts with a W, I was unfortunately last. 
Well Girl Number 7, Monique, accidentally took my speech with her. Now I did my best to be memorized but I was super nervous, and I had to stop in the middle of my speech and say that my speech had been taken. I was accused of not even giving my speech to the staff member, until the girl before me very apologetically said she had my speech, and I was then able to start over. 
Many tears were shed after this event because I had been so nervous and I tried really hard, and it sort of blew up in my face.. 

After the Spokesmodel Fiasco, I had many hours to get ready for the Formal Wear Competition. My boyfriend, Nik was my escort, and you really can't mess this up. All everyone had to do was walk up on stage, the contestant would step forward, walk around in a circle, stand there till the escort came forward, then walk off stage. Pretty simple.

 DAY THREE.
Day three was rehearsal, Personal Introduction Competition, Interview Competition, and the actual Pageant. 

This was me looking sort of ridiculous since I was talking and giving my 30-second introduction. The girl next to me was last year's National American Miss Teen Alyssa L. She was the sweetest thing, with an excellent voice. In the morning during rehearsal, her and I had a whole conversation about how fiber affects the body. While waiting for the interviews to start, she told funny stories about her dinner the previous night, then she somehow heard that I was in choir, and proceeded to yell at me for not competing in the Talent Competition. It was pretty funny. 

The interviews seemed to go well, the only question I got a bit tripped on was "If you were to have a party here, what two songs would you play?" Seriously, what am I supposed to say to that? Usually I don't listen to American/English music very much, so I answered the best I could with Korean songs.

Here was the stage in the Ballroom at the hotel, which you may have seen in previous posts from Anime Detour, which takes place in the same hotel. 
Here were all 48 of us. We were by far the smallest division. But everyone was super nice and friendly. 

The dance number was pretty fun, and easy enough to learn. The girl to my right was the girl who one the top title...and many other awards.. 


During the award ceremony, patiently waiting for names to be called. Unfortunately, the only time my name was called was when I was told I was in the top 50% of the competition, but I was very discouraged when Kayla (2012-2013 NAM Teen) won basically every award. 

It was a great experience, maybe next year I'll do better if I compete again. 

I have to thank all of my sponsors who helped me to get to this competition in no particular order, my father,

Thank you so much for supporting me.

In other news, I turn 18 next week, and I'm going for my license the day after, and I start college in two weeks. So all of that really exciting!

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