Miss Minnesota's Outstanding Teen 2012!: Day One of MAOTeen week!

I'm so happy to say that I have finally arrived back in Nisswa and am comfortably snuggled up in my bed.

My time in Orlando was so absolutely incredible. I can't put it into words because it was such an amazing and life-changing experience.

While I was down there, I did not have access to a computer to update all of you on how my week went, so I made sure to keep a journal and write down everything that was happening that day. As a result, I will be sharing these blogs with you and will be posting one or two of them a day. I want to give each and everyone of you a glimpse into what my week was like, and I hope this helps.

Please remember that these will be in past tense, because I'm literally just copying them out of my journal onto here. If it is in quotation marks, then you know that it is a blog.

So here is the very first one! I hope you enjoy! :)

Day One of MAOT - August 11th, 2012

"The day started early for me because I had a 7:10 AM check-in time. I was so excited that I hardly slept last night.

The first thing I did was meet Elizabeth Fechtel, Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2012. You always dream of meeting Miss America or Miss America's Outstanding Teen and when you finally do you realize that they are normal everyday people. Elizabeth was very kind and I want to congratulate her on an awesome year.

After meeting Elizabeth, I was then rushed over to a Tony Bowls photoshoot with Jenn Cady Photography. This shoot was a lot of fun and has been a tradition of MAOT for many years. I was honored to finally be apart of it.

I ended up wearing our opening number dresses (Sponsored by Tony Bowls himself) for my shoot. My hair was very large and my make-up was very dramatic, but it was a fun experience that I hope the next Miss Minnesota's Outstanding Teen will get to have.

After the shoot, I had some more videotaping to wrap up from yesterday outside. This was just my state introduction and a fun little music video of us girls rockin' it out to Party Rock Anthem that the videographers are going to compile together... I can't wait to see how that one turns out!

Then, I had my fitting for my opening number dress and shoes, as well as my fitness wear outfit, sponsored by Tony Bowls and Zebella Boutique. I'm glad that everything fit the way it was supposed to and nothing needed altering or changing.

Mom and I then had lunch right in the hotel to savor what few moments we had together before heading back up for a mandatory rehearsal. This rehearsal was very intense... all I can say is that I'm glad I learned the production dances before I got here! The choreographer, Pam Bohling and the producer, John Best are awesome people to work with and this organization is truly blessed to have them on board. I worked up an awesome sweat at this rehearsal before I met my Mom and my two directors, MK and Renee, for dinner and to get ready for the orientation. I'm really glad that I had some sit down time with them before the craziness of pageant week began.

The orientation went smoothly, but the hardest part of the night was saying goodbye to my incredible support team. I wish I didn't have to but I'm ecstatic to start my week here at MAOTeen.

After orientation, state gifts were passed out and the contestants were escorted to the hotess suit for a meet-and-greet party in which we all got to know each other and Elizabeth a little bit better before we start our week together. The Miss Florida Organization sponsored this event because Elizabeth was formerly Miss Florida's Outstanding Teen. The director even found a woman in Florida who is a porfessional cupcake baker and has won Cupcake Wars on TLC. All I can say is that that was quite possibly the best cupcake I've ever had. Not kidding! It was insanely good.

After a crazy busy day, I was so excited to crawl into bed and rest up for the day tomorrow. We have an eight hour rehearsal tomorrow, so I think we will need all the sleep we can get.

I even got lucky with a roomate, Jameson from Georgia, that likes to sleep as much as I do! :)"

Always,
Bailey
Miss Minnesota's Outstanding Teen 2012