January 8th, 2011
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| Lauren Arnold, Ashley Smith, me |
Ever since I started pageants I have had the opportunity to make many great friends along the way. So when my sister queen, Ashley Smith, Miss Texas International 2010 and Miss International 2010 asked me if I wanted to go to the Miss Collegiate America pageant, she really didn’t have to twist my arm. I was pretty excited to take a road trip because several of our friends including Lauren Arnold (Miss Georgia International 2010) would be there. We saw many of our friends both onstage competing and in the audience! Another reason that was going to make this trip special was that the pageant was being held in San Antonio at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. This is the very same venue where I was crowned Miss Teen Texas International 2010 last March. From the moment I walked inside, memories came flooding back about that night. I began to get very excited about seeing the girls compete in their fun fashion and evening gown and at the same time I was reminded that my own reign would soon becoming to an end. Congrats to Shannon Folsom (Miss Maine) who won Miss Collegiate America and good luck to all of the girls who competed. They were truly a group of girls who were excelling in college and have bright futures ahead of them! After we finished saying our goodbyes to everyone it was time to finally get some dinner. Then we realized it was almost midnight! Almost everything was closed including the hotel restaurant. The hotel staff told us about “Mi Tierra Café”, a great Mexican restaurant that was featured on the Food Network several times and it was OPEN 24 HOURS!!! After a ‘tour’ of San Antonio, aka “lost” we found it. When we got there it was bustling with people including families with small children. You would have thought it 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We joked about having jet lag when we left, because it was so strange to see that many people eating dinner so late. Taking the road trip to San Antonio with Ashley, Mrs. Smith, and my mom was a blast! We laughed all the way there and back. The weekend went by so fast and being able to see Ashley was great ,but all good things must come to an end. Like I mentioned, being at the pageant reminded me of competing and a little bit sad about giving up my title, but I’ve had such an amazing year and I owe it all to the International pageant system.
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| Me, Ashley Smith |
