Miss Vacaville

CJ and AUD at the 2008 Miss Vacaville Pageant.

I've entered the Vacaville Fiesta Day's Pageant twice in my life: once for Teen and once for Miss...

When my mom encouraged me to enter the teen pageant, I can't say that I was gung-ho into beauty pageants (like some of the other girls), but I guess there was a superficial girly part of me that wanted to wear a shiny crown... Clearly, I didn't enter for the right reasons.

(BTW, the winner was a girl that never showed up to any rehearsals & I pretty much didn't see her face until the night of the pageant... She was bred to do pageants. In fact, years later she won Miss California -- Some girls are gung-ho on the pageant biz! I thought that all pageant systems were biased after that).

When I entered the Miss Vacaville/Solano County pageant in 2008, it wasn't for the same reasons... 

Actually it wasn't for any particular reason, I think I was bored & needed a challenge. Plus, I knew I'd get to meet a lot of people and possibly get a chance to do volunteer work around Solano County.

When I told CJ, I thought I would get a "Why would you do that?" response, but instead he said "That would be fun, you'd do great!" and the rest was history.

Not only did I do everything on my terms, but I'm almost positive I won from my interview.

During my reign, I not only loved my pageant sisters, but I especially loved the volunteer work. 

Including: fundraising for the Arts, feeding the hungry, lighting Vacaville's Christmas tree, etc. 

There was so much! 

I've heard from several pageant girls people that I am nothing more but "the girl next door" pretty.

Not "pageant" pretty...

With the Mayor of Vacaville at an event.

The one thing that I most appreciate from winning Miss Vacaville was the community service.

& it might be strange because that isn't what most girls take away from it...

It's helped me to realize my full potential on what I can do for my community & beyond.

Which is why I've decided that after I get enough nursing experience, my goal is to volunteer in a third world country.

Who needs "pageant pretty" when you're doing good in the world?

Thank you CJ for all the support, love, encouragement, and massive amounts of photos!

(Maybe I can convince him to volunteer, too!)

Here are some of my greatest friends to support me!