Judging the Miss Sunburst pageant

First off, although this is completely irrelevent, let me just share with y'all that I got straight A's this semester!! :) A 4.0 this semester brings my GPA up to 3.97... not too shabby I must say!! I worked really hard this semester, because last semester I got four A's and one A- so I had to raise the bar! Between working 22 hours a week, taking 15 credits and doing some volunteer work for Vera House (www.verahouse.org), not to mention all of my fabulous Miss Finger Lakes responibilities, I'd say this semester was a big success! Also, CONGRATS to everyone who graduated this year!! You should be extremely proud, a college degree is an incredible accomplishment and I can't wait for mine!

So, this morning (after being awake for 23 hours straight and getting only 3 hours of sleep...) I had the opportunity to judge the day care/school wear optional competition for the Miss Sunburst New York 2009 pageant. Mislead by the "day care" part of the title, I was walking in thinking that I'd be judging the little kids, as I mentioned in my last post. This was not the case! I was judging contestants from ages 6 months old up to 27 years old. Let me tell you... this was NOTTT essay! First of all, how could I judge the little babies?! I just wanted to give 'em all 10's because they were just SO darn cute! I also wanted to take a few home... hey, my purse was totally big enough. It was such an eye-opener, to be on that side of the judge's table and actually have to decide who was worthy of bringing home a title. I sympathize greatly for all pageant judges (especially the MAO judges... how could you decide between all of us outstanding young women!?), because for me, having the authority to help decide in making or breaking someone's pageant experience was a really big responsibility. As a contestant, I know what it's like to want something so badly and be trying your hardest to get it, and after that it's all in the judges hands. The day was really fun, though, I saw a ton of adorable little babies and some very beautiful ladies, and being able to check out a different type of pageantry than MAO was interesting and insightful.