My 2011 Miss Albertville Candidate Experience

Hi everyone! Thank you for checking out our Miss Albertville candidate blog. I'm Jessica, and I am excited to contribute to our little collection of personal stories and experiences! 

I realize that candidates writing before me have told you quite a bit about our events, so I would like to focus my blog around what this experience has meant to me so far. I never imagined that running as a Miss Albertville candidate would bring as many emotions as it has. I also was pleasantly surprised with how quickly I developed friendships with the other girls. Each girl running seems to have her own little place in our “candidate family”, which I have grown to really appreciate and love. This being said, I am very thankful to be given the opportunity to run as a candidate for Miss Albertville and I hope to tell you a little bit about it in this blog!

Rewinding back to a few months ago, I received a random phone call one evening saying that someone thought I would be a qualified candidate for the Miss Albertville Royalty Program. I was flattered, but in all honesty, I was a little hesitant about running as a candidate in the beginning. I was in the middle of a chaotic semester as a PSEO student at the U of M-Twin Cities, I was wrapping up my senior year of high school, and I was also working two jobs and still trying to find time for my family and friends. It took me a couple of days to digest the idea of running as a candidate, but I finally decided that the opportunity was put before me, and there had to be a reason for it.

So a couple of weeks later, I found myself at the orientation meeting at the Albertville City Hall with a bunch of familiar faces and also a few new ones. It was hard not to look at all of the girls and think about all the things they have going for them and all the qualities that make them a great Miss Albertville candidate. However, as time progressed from that orientation meeting, I began to feel less intimidated and the relationships between the girls began to feel more like a small support system. As individuals, we come from different schools, different grades, and different “social groups”, yet when we come together, there is mutual respect amongst us. Everyone makes it a priority to build each other up and invest in each other’s lives, which has been incredible!

I think that being in this program has pushed me to think about what kind of person I really want to be, and what I want others to see when they look at me—which is something everybody should do throughout their lives. Especially in high school, it’s easy to get swept away in who your parents want you to be, who your teachers want you to be, or who your peers want you to be. But the fact of the matter is, your parents, your teachers, and your peers don’t define who you are--which is something that has taken me a while to figure out. Being able to take a step back from who I see myself as according to school, my parents, and my peers, and look at who I am as just me has been not only a good thing, but also something I needed to do.  I feel this opportunity to run as a Miss Albertville candidate could not have come at a better time--because as I’m finishing up high school, and getting ready for college, I’ve been able to look at who I’ve become and I can feel proud of it.

When I first decided to run as a candidate, I was nervous and a little scared about what kinds of situations I might be put in, or what I would feel if I ran and didn’t get chosen to represent the city of Albertville. However, throughout the course of the candidate program, I have come to realize that no matter what the outcome of my candidate experience is, I will leave this program with more than what I started with. Being given the opportunity to run as a Miss Albertville candidate with this group of girls is an honor, and I am so excited to see where it leads me—whether it be a crown, or just some great friendships that I can hold onto in years to come!

Whether you’re reading this as a younger person in our community, or an adult who is interested in the latest happenings around town, I hope that this blog has given you a grasp of the good that this program is bringing to our community!

Thanks for reading (: 

-Jessica