All of us have had wonderful and bad days in our life. June 13th, 2007 was one of those wonderful days and probably the best in my life. This is how it came to be. I was competing against 10 other girls for the title of Junior Miss Cottage Grove for over a month. I was supposed to be competing in the Little Miss Cottage Grove age category because I was only 11. However this category didn't have enough openings. Therefore they moved me up to the category of Jr. Miss CG. This now meant I had to compete against 10 other girls 2-5 years older than me. In order to compete for the title I had to be judged on a Kick off Dinner, interview, fashion show with an onstage question, and a coronation. I had participated in all of the events I was required to attend and the day I had waited for finally arrived, the day of coronation. This was when they chose who was going to be a part of the Cottage Grove Royalty for the year 2007-2008.
I woke up with butterflies in my stomach, today was the day of coronation. I could barely eat anything since I was nervous. My mom made me an afternoon hair appointment to make my hair look professional and nice. As quick as a whip, we raced home after getting my hair done to put my white dress on that looked as if it had crystals all over it. After I had my dress, heels, makeup, and hair perfect, we left for Cottage Grove Junior High. This was where the coronation was to be held. The other girls and I had to get there early for rehearsal to perfect everything and make sure nothing went wrong.
After we had rehearsal it was time for us to go on stage as the opening act. The theme was cowboys and cowgirls so we all wore cowboy hats and boots and danced to the music. The dance went well and we all had to rush back to get our dresses on for the onstage question. I sat there playing with my hair and biting my finger nails as we all waited in line for our names to be called. I heard my name called. It was time to walk out by myself to face the audience.







I walked up to the M.C. for my question; she had a smile as big as a banana on her face.
“In gymnastics what is your favorite thing to do?” she asked.
“In gymnastics my favorite thing to do is go on the vault.”I answered. I had done the best I could do I was nervous on how the other girls did on their question though. After everyone went the judges left to deliberate who won. We sat and waited after what felt like a year until they came back and started the awards. There were four rewards other then who won queen and princess, they included top button seller, best interview, the Kristina Westmoreland award, and miss congeniality, all of these things were based on everyone in all three age categories so there were about 30 girls. When she announced who won the best interview award, I was so shocked to hear my name called because, I had heard if you won this high award you were guaranteed to either win queen or princess of your age category. After they had rewarded all of the awards to everyone it was crowning time. This was the moment I had been waiting for all night. We all lined up like toy soldiers. The previous princess’s were standing behind us ready to give you your sash, tiara, and flowers if you won.

“Will everyone please be quiet while we crown our new Jr. Miss Cottage grove princess.” She begged while she waited for everyone to quiet down. “Thank you, our new Jr. Miss Cottage Grove Princess is………..Marissa.” The audience clapped and cheered as they put my sash on, flowers in my hand, and tiara on my head. I was crying I had never been so happy in my life. I went and sat down by Miss Cottage Grove and her princess’s while I waited for my queen to be announced. Amber, a 15-year-old ended up becoming my queen. I was ecstatic I wanted her to win because she was extremely nice and helped me with my dance. After all 7 girls were called as either queens or princesses of Cottage Grove we took pictures. We also had a meeting of the upcoming year. I went home and my mom called my family to tell them that I had won. I couldn’t fall asleep that night because I couldn’t believe I won.

At the start of the experience I didn’t think I would be able to win. This experience made me look at how you can accomplish anything if you just set your mind to it. This experience gave me so many opportunities. I was able to be in parades, attend grand openings, benefits, festivals, nursing homes, charity events, and fund raisers. I hung out with those girls when we weren’t wearing our crowns and dresses and they became like a second family to me.