I finally arrived in Chicago Saturday evening and have been having the time of my life so far through pageant week meeting all of the Miss and Teen contestants and attending the fun events planned for us all! Check out what I've been up to since the beginning of the week!
Day 1: Orientation for the Miss contestants began Monday night at 8:00 pm. It was so great to meet all of my new pageant sisters and the wonderful pageant staff!
Day 2: This morning (Tuesday), I awoke at 5am to get my hair and makeup done by my fantastic makeup artist, Miss Kara Knudsen for a long day of events! We began the morning off with a bus ride to the John Hancock Observatory, then traveled to the Lincoln Park Zoo, and finally to the Boys and Girls Club!
It was such an amazing experience riding up to the 94th floor of the John Hancock building, and the view was spectacular!
The zoo was such a fun experience viewing the exotic animals and greeting children and their families!
Additionally, we had a group dinner tonight with an inspirational talk by Eddie Peterson! It was so fun dressing up in our gowns and enjoying a nice sit-down dinner together.
Day 3: Today was full of rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals!
In the evening, I attended the Princess Ball at the Skokie Library; working with little girls on princess-themed activities and signing autographs! I have never felt more like a princess in my entire life, and I had such an amazing time doing crafts with a beautiful two year old little girl!
Day 4: Today I began my day with my interview, which went fantastically! I had 5 minute interviews with 5 different judges to discuss my future plans as Miss International and my platform of Spark Your Heart/Spark Your Little Heart Guild.
After interviews I had a day off from rehearsals and appearances, so I spent some much-needed time with my family! In the evening, I attended the Miss Teen International prelims! The show was awesome, and made me even more excited to compete in the Miss Prelims the next night!
Day 5: The longest day of rehearsals, by far! Rehearsals were all day long, until this evening where I competed in the preliminary competition! It was so much fun- I almost forgot how much I absolutely love the adrenaline rush of performing on stage and competing.
I am happy with how I performed this evening!
Day 6: The final day. I can't believe it's finally here. At first I thought Pageant Week would be the longest week of my life when, in fact, it turned out to be the shortest.
I have made some of the most amazing friendships with the greatest, most driven women in the world. I could not be more grateful to have had the opportunity to compete here in Chicago at the Miss International Pageant and to have gained the experiences I have within the last week.
Tonight was the Miss International final competition. I did not place in the Top 10, but I absolutely loved the experience and the friendships, and I feel that I did the very best I could have! I am one of the very youngest contestants in the pageant, competing at the minimal age for the Miss Division against women up to 28 years old! Not to mention, I was competing against 43 other beautiful, established women from all over the world!
Congratulations to the new Miss International 2013, Jesse Ladou, and thank you to my outstanding family and sponsors for all of your support!
This certainly isn't the end of my journey!
You haven't seen the last of me yet ; )
Xox,
Jillian Roels
Miss Washington International 2013
