My week at Muskegon for the Miss Michigan Scholarship Pageant was a memorable week (June 2009). I was so inspired by all the contestants, their stories, and love for their platform. It was definitely a tough competition and I am sure glad I was not a judge!
We had an amazing hospitality team that made sure each contestant had what she needed. The hospitality team provided us with endless amounts of food, water, and best of all- they always had a gift waiting for us on our beds at the end of each night; that would always put a smile on my face.
Though most of the week was filled with fun activities, meeting new people, and gifts, there was also a lot of hard work involved. For the first time in my life I had to learn four dances in one day! My talent is singing, not dancing- not to mention that I have always had a bad memory. That was my challenge throughout the week, but it was nice to know that I wasn’t the only girl who had forgotten the dances the next day.
I was thankful that through my involvement at Lawrence Tech I have developed good time management skills that came in very handy the week of Miss Michigan. The girls were expected to follow the schedule filled with activities and be on time. We were also expected to wake up early each day. Thankfully, since I work at a High School waking up early wasn’t too bad of a challenge; it did get harder as the week went by since we slept around midnight and the nerves and excitement wouldn’t let me sleep sometimes.
Overall, I had an amazing week filled with great experiences and memorable events. Though I did not win, I am happy with the results; and if you attended the competition you know that my performance during the week very well represented Lawrence Tech. I had the dream to represent Michigan, but God had a different plan for me this year. Sometimes you wonder why things happen the way they do, but at the end it is for the best. For example, since I did not win Miss Michigan I was able to visit my family in Ecuador that I had not seen in over two years. To add to that, my eyes had been rejecting different pairs of contacts since the beginning of the year and I had no choice but to wear glasses or get the eye Lasik surgery. I was able to get the Lasik surgery done in Ecuador for less than a quarter of the cost here in the US thanks to my dad’s cousin. In retrospective, visiting my family and getting my eyes fixed were events that were important and had to happen.
I look back on the Miss Michigan week and still believe and will always believe that I could have won and represented this state; but the reality is that it was not my time.
A great thanks to Leslie Wilson, my parents, my sisters, and friends who helped me prepare for the Miss Michigan week and sent me encouraging letters.
I’m going to continue my year as Miss Lawrence Tech advocating my platform, High School Drop-out Prevention, and I know that the next titleholder will be lucky to have the Miss Michigan experience with her for the rest of her life.
Andrea Freile
Miss Lawrence Tech ‘09
You can view this article on the ltu news (and see pictures) at: http://technews.ltu.edu/?p=498
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