The summer I was 18, I was in the "Miss National Teenager Pageant". Like a lot of other girls in the late 70's early 80's Barbizon Modeling was a big thing, and a lot of girls my age dreamed of being models or famous. I wanted to be a model and go to Broadway, so I thought entering a pageant was a great idea.
When I got to the pageant, there were girls from all over Massachusetts hoping to find their dream of stardom. There were also girls there vying for a shot at the college scholarships you could win if you placed in the pageant. As I got to meet and know some of the girls, I realized we were all there hoping to win. Its like when you were little and you dreamt of being a fairy princess, only this was a teenagers dream of wearing a crown, and being a "Beauty Pageant" winner.
Very quickly, I learned that the pageant scene was much like junior high....and there were a lot of "mean" girls who wore fake smiles and pretended to be nice. During our lunch breaks the clicks began, and everyone was trying to "fit in". There was a lot of beauty in the room, but not a lot of "beauty".
Fortunately for me, I found the "beauty" in my pageant experience, in the friend I made that weekend. She was a stunningly gorgeous girl with beauty not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. We sat together during our meals, and talked about our families, and our lives. We just clicked. We went through the paces of the pageant, and it was no surprise to me, that she made it into the top 20....personally I think she should have won. She was glad she didn't win, because as it turned out, she was only doing the pageant, because that's what her family wanted her to do, her heart wasn't really in it.
Our trophy for that weekend of pageantry was a life long friendship. We were both heading to college in the fall, and though she lived in Weymouth, and I lived in Bedford, we promised to meet yearly at Fanueil Hall in Boston. Through the next four years, we kept that promise. After she graduated from College ( I left college and got married a year later) We continued to see each other once a year. We went to each others weddings, were there for the births of each others children and have been emotional support for one and other during the good times and bad times we have been through over the years.
31 years later, with our crazy busy schedules, we still get together at least once a year, but when we see each other, we catch up on the things we have missed, and it will seem like only a day had passed between the times we have seen each other. To me that is a true sign of friendship. She is still a beautiful person on the outside and inside, and I think that summer, we were both winners, because we found "Beauty" at a Beauty pageant, and that Beauty is the friendship we share today. Thanks Carol, for 31 years of friendship, may we have many more years of Beauty ahead of us!
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