The Award I Never Thought Would Come My Way

Two weeks ago at the Miss Central States Fair pageant, I won an award that I never imagined I'd win, not even at a local pageant. I won the talent award.

I have always seen my talent as a weakness, and it has always been the area of competition I worry about the most. I cannot sing or dance, the talent that seems to dominate the Miss America stage. All I can do is talk. So I've tried to spice it up every way possible, to make it seem more like a true "talent." Everything from poetry to auctioneering and even a civil rights speech that was comprised of three famous speeches. But all of them seemed to fall short. At the end of the night, I'd win interview, and then nothing. I just could not seem to get it right.

Miss Colorado performing her talent at Miss America.

Then I sat down and thought long and hard about what I was doing wrong. I watched Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson's Miss America monologue over and over again. What was it that made her's so successful? And then it hit me, she was being 100% herself. All of my talents were what I had thought the judges and audience wanted to hear, not what I wanted them to hear.

As I prepared for Miss Central States Fair, I looked through my blogs, trying to see what exactly I wanted to talk about. I came across this post from October, http://thefarmingbeautyqueen.blogspot.com/2015/10/just-trying-to-live-childhood-dream.html. I decided then and there I was going to talk about all the things that may have contributed to my dreams of becoming an "American Dairy Farmer," the title of my monologue.

Me and my heifer, Midnight.

In the Saturday pageant, Miss Rapid City, I did not win talent, but I did happen to take home the interview award. And at the end of the night, I had people coming up to me saying "you're the dairy girl, I loved what you said up there." By being truly myself, the audience could see my passion and see the personal side of being a dairy farmer. And Sunday, when I won that talent award, I was beyond shocked, and so honored to have shared my story (in a minute and a half), to yet another audience.

Performing my talent on Sunday.

I cannot wait to share my passion with more people throughout my year as Miss Central States Fair. Now you know why I compete and why I LOVE the Miss America Organization.

Putting My Passion First

As I have posted before, I "lost" a local pageant in September. After that, I decided that I was done with pageants. I hated feeling like I had done better than the results showed. I also wanted to just eat whatever I wanted and start working out for fun instead of for a goal. So I was done. My competitiveness clouded my judgement and what was really important to me.

But then I attended a Dairy Girl Network event in Sioux Falls in November. For two days, I watched amazing and inspirational women in the dairy industry with similar goals and dreams speak and it was like they were talking directly to me.

Dairy Carrie with my friend Chelsea and I after her presentation .

Before one of the sessions, these two women sitting next to me asked if I had ever been a dairy princess and I shared that I had been a butterhead in 2012. Then I told them how now I held a local crown within the Miss American Organization, and I was still promoting dairy with it. They got so excited and one of them said "you have to keep doing it." My heart smiled as they spoke and I knew at that moment that yes, I HAD to keep doing it. Then the very next speaker, Dairy Carrie, showed a video of the main actress in Bones, Emily Deschanel, one of my favorite shows. She was speaking on behalf of PETA. After that video, I just had this weird feeling that if I just gave up on promoting my platform in pageants, PETA won. (Sounds crazy, but it was the push I needed.)

So when I step on that stage this Saturday and Sunday competing for Miss Rapid City, I will put everything I have out there. I will not be afraid of not walking away without a crown because by just performing my talent, I will have shown what dairy farming truly is to an room full of people, hopefully encouraging them to support their local community by buying dairy products. I will know that I have put nothing before my love of promoting the dairy industry and my cows. Nothing, not even a cheeseburger or pizza, nor a night I just did not want to go to the gym, nor my fear of losing again, nothing!

7342, my favorite heifer on the SDSU Dairy Farm.

On a dairy farm, cows come first. In my heart, cows come first. So when I get on that stage, cows will come first and nothing else will matter because Monday morning I will be with the cows once again and they will love me no matter what, crown or no crown. And if I have the honor of winning that title, I would be more than pleased to promote dairy across this wonderful state of South Dakota.