By now everyone and their sister has probably heard Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” and it’s lyrics proclaiming ” Ain’t about how fast I get there; Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side; It’s the climb”.
This song is incredibly empowering and should be in every pageant girl’s playlist because it absolutely underscores how important growth is and how the crown may be nice, but it’s not really about the hardware.
We’ve been competing with National American Miss since 2012. We took two years off: 2014 & 2016. 2014 was for travel over the summer and 2016 was while my daughter was under a non-compete contract. Let me say that those years we took off, my daughter experienced growth that couldn’t be quantified with score sheets. We just got our scores yesterday and as I look back on her growth since 2012, I’m amazed at her dedication to improvement despite setbacks.
You can see from these scores that she (and her support team) has improved over time. We started out clueless as I’ve said before. When she got her first “golden ticket” we knew we had to take the opportunity because it was an opportunity for growth. We knew she had ZERO chance of winning.
The scores and growth I’m most proud of? Interview. Hands down this was the most difficult category for her to excel in because it was ALL HER. There was no speech writer to zhuszh her introduction… no way to improve her appearance… it was 100% her and the judges, one on one.
I know her 2012 scores had to be terrible. She was the proud recipient of the “thank you for coming” trophy and that was it. Her ranking has only improved since then.
- 2013 – Top 15
- 2015 – 3rd Runner Up (almost 100 girls competing)
- 2017 – Ranked 8th (almost 100 girls competing)
- 2018 – 4th Runner Up (80+/- girls competing)
- 2019 – 3rd Runner Up (70+/- girls competing)
Does she want to win? More than anything. Will she? Who knows. All I know is:
There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb