Success: Learning to Lose

The fourth point of the crown I am going to talk about is Success. And I believe in order to be a truly successful person, you need to learn how to lose and keep moving forward.

This past Saturday, I learned a very valuable lesson about not only success, but also what to do when you do not accomplish your definition of short term success. I helped out at the South Dakota Special Olympics Summer Games in Brookings. I was able to hand out awards all day long and it was such an amazing experience to see these kids triumph. But it was also so great to be able to see how they handled disappointment. The special olympics to these individuals is something that they look forward to and love to compete in, so when they don't achieve their goal (or their idea of success), it can be very disappointing. There were some amazing kids that looked on the bright side and were happy for their friends or for just the ribbon they got. Although not everyone can handle losing that gracefully. I know throughout my life I have struggled with this as I am naturally a competitive person, like many of these athletes. A handful of them were telling themselves things like "be happy with what you got," or "you're okay," both very useful when trying to smile for pictures after a disappointment. Then they would tell me about their next event and we would talk about how they still had more chances to bring home the gold. They would forget the past and look towards the future.

This experience is definitely going to be one that I will remember for the rest of my life and will help me the week I am out in Hot Springs. As a rookie, I am very nervous, to be completely honest. But I am going to stifle, just a little bit, the competitive Maggie and let the good times roll. After all, I am told that the week in Hot Springs is so fun and I will be able to hang out with fifteen amazing young women with such a variety of interests and experiences. I look forward to getting to know each of them better and learn about their passions. I am going to take the week one day at a time and soak up every second of the experience because at the end of the week, I will know Miss South Dakota, whether it is one of my amazing Miss SD Class of 2015 sisters or by some chance, myself. And how many people can say that they personally know one of the girls on the Miss America stage? Not many! I am also going to take the strategies from the amazing young men and women of the special olympics and look forward. No matter what happens June 20th, I still have a crown that I get to promote chocolate milk with and that is all that is UDDERLY important! (cow pun!;))