February Recap

Some Thoughts along with a School Visit, Some Sponsors, and the Vienna Boys' Choir

February came and went! This was a very rough month for my family and on my mental health. If you know, you know. Otherwise, feel free to message me.

Just Some Thoughts

My son and husband have been my biggest cheerleaders, and I absolutely could not do this without their support. Okay, my one-year-old has no idea what that means or how to do it, but seeing his little smile whenever I do anything related to preparing for Miss Georgia USA is contagious!

However, I have been an emotional mess these last few weeks with pageant preparation and just dealing with our new home starting to have issues in general.

There was this leaked video from Miss Universe owner Anne Jakrajutatip talking about being inclusive but “they can compete, but they can’t win.” This includes married women and mothers, and as a mother and wife I took great offense to that.

So many people who have done the competition, those are coaches and trainers, etc. have called out Jakrajutatip for “fake inclusivity.” I have wondered about dropping out of the competition because of this, as well as dealing with the repairs on our house.

Who says you cannot be a wife and/or mother and be Miss Universe? Mothers have proven time and time again they can have children and aim for their dreams.

Owning a home, preparing for a pageant, and dealing with a very difficult time for our family is tiring and expensive. I have been doing freelance work, which is wonderful, but I have even lost motivation to do that because I am focused on our home and son. In addition to that, a Department of Labor rule that could potentially change my work situation, so I have been on the job hunt.

But enough of that. Let us talk about what I have done this last month in preparation for Miss Georgia USA!

SPONSORS

I have been working on finally getting sponsors! I could have paid off the competition fees easily, but I wanted to get to know my community better! As someone who has a fear of asking for money, I have had to do this to get out of my comfort zone.

So who is my first sponsor?

Odom Chiropractic! Jerry Odom has been helping me fix my neck and back. Odom is a Navy Veteran, and while there is pain for some time, it also feels really good! Also, pain relief therapy is probably my favorite part because I can relax after getting all straightened out! They have an office in Aiken, South Carolina and Grovetown, Georgia if you live in the Augusta area!

If you have any limb or back issues, I highly recommend them!

Of course, Sally Kolar Photography just had to become a sponsor. She is a local photographer, and she has done pageant photography, so she knows the poses, the lighting, looks, etc. She has a studio in Evans, Georgia and several assistants. While photos are edited, even the RAW image files look amazing!

She does a lot of event, family photos, and even children’s photos! Apparently, a lot of people know who she is, so I highly recommend her for photos!

ACTIVITIES

I also had the opportunity to visit SOAR Academy, a non-traditional learning environment for children to learn through exploring their interests and knowing their needs. Most of the children are neurodivergent, which means they have ADHD, autism, dyslexia, etc.

Every child is different and deserve to succeed, and this school is proof that having special needs is NOT a disability. They are different and need to learn differently! The school previously was a microschool before becoming a private school. It was a finalist for the YASS Prize in 2022.

So what is the YASS Prize?

The YASS prize awards schools that are focused on becoming Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless (STOP). This last year in 2023, Valiant Cross Academy, an all Black-male faith-based school in Alabama, became the YASS Prize winner!

This is a HUGE deal, because it means the winning school will get more funding for their school ($1 million)!

Every child deserves a learning where they will TRULY thrive regardless of race, background, zipcode, or learning ability.

Okay, now for my favorite part: Attending a Vienna Boys’ Choir and meeting the group director, Jimmy Chiang, was truly a treat. He is from Hong Kong, but he studied at Baylor University in Texas, then later on moved to Austria!

For those who do not know, there are four groups in the Vienna Boys’ Choir: Brucknerchor, Haydnchor, Mozartchor, and Schubertchor, named after Austrian composers! While one or two groups go on tour at a time (in different places), the rest are in school and performing in Vienna!

The choir is also international now, and many of you know I sang in the International Children’s Choir, which sadly no longer exists, so I have a love for singing in many different languages. Not to compare the two choirs, but I love how international the boys’ choir has become.

Now you may ask, what on earth does the Vienna Boys’ Choir have to do with my platform?

It has EVERYTHING to do with education opportunities and ensuring children are getting an education they love and that works for them! Every single time I attended an education policy meeting related to non-traditional education, I kept thinking about the Vienna Boys’ Choir school.

Okay, in a lot of ways there is still something traditional about the education, because the school has been around for a long time, but most children do not get opportunities to sing and tour the world for school.

And if you think it sounds strange I know about the school, there is a senior high school (Oberstufenrealgymnasium Der Wiener Sängerknaben) for girls and boys back in 2014, I was actually accepted as an exchange student, but unfortunately due to paperwork and other things falling through, I was not able to go.

However, I did tour the school when my family visited Austria!

I was very funny-looking at 17, so completely ignore how I looked back then!

Hopefully, I will get back there some day! I actually applied for this small music competition back in September based in Vienna, but they wanted everyone to re-submit their videos again, so I will be preparing for that, too!

But back to the concert, the boys sang so many songs I knew. Either, I have heard them sing them before, or I sang them in the International Children’s Choir, as well as when I was in music school and did operas. I left music school after a year, but I do love my life now.

The two songs I had sung in my old choir that they sang were Niška Banja and The Prayer. For my choir, The Prayer was our “signature song,” especially with the arrangement by the assistant director, Sheryl Laukat. Mrs. Laukat is such a treasure, and she made so many beautiful arrangements for the choir. She also turned an Edvard Grieg piano piece (Cradle Song) into a Christmas choral piece, and she arranged this version of Utah, This is the Place.

Hearing the boys sing The Prayer made me well up in tears, but who would not cry with that song? I have heard many versions of the song, but of course, I am biased towards the International Children’s Choir version. I wish I could share, but I know Mrs. Laukat feels very sentimental about it, as she arranged it for her son.

I loved hearing them sing from operas, such as Macbeth and Nabucco. Having worked in politics and policy, I love Va, pensiero from Nabucco, because it is seen as protest song. I also have sung this several times in in choruses.

“Oh mia Patria sì bella e perduta!”, which translated into English is “O, my homeland, so beautiful and lost!”

I also am trying to get back into music school, because I just cannot deny a large part of who I am, plus I want my son and future children to be able to grow up around music more.

Thank you to Sarah Vardigans from Opus 3 Artists for setting this up for us!