California Dreaming: Miss Gavilan Hills 2010

Jenna Harvey
Miss Gavilan Hills 2010

Marina Inserra and I waving to the audience as Miss Gavilan Hills and Miss Northern California Regional.

This is my first message to you as the new Miss Gavilan Hills 2010! The Pageant Bonanza weekend was a whirlwind of events and I can't believe it is over so quickly. It is a blessing and an honor to represent Gavilan Hills, but this is a start of a wonderful year.

When your name is called, there is a moment where you don’t believe it. When I heard, “Your new Miss Gavilan Hills is……… contestant number 6, Je” I immediately ran back through my head, “wait a second. 1,2,3,4,5…” And then it hit me. Unfortunately, making pretty pleasant faces when I win appears to not be one of my strong suits. I simply stood there with my head hung as those squeezing my hands next to me had to give me a small push of encouragement to move. Those who know me can testify to the fact that I’m not an emotional kind of pageant girl. I love competing, but I do not compete to live and that is how I think everyone should feel. However, that night, a flood of emotions came over me as I realized what had just happened. I thought of the endless workouts, the agonizing pain I felt when I started practicing after breaking my wrist, the many long nights watching CNN.com videos and FOX News after working, and ensuring I was at my best in each category. I thought of the sporadic questions from my family and friends at random times of the day, “Jenna, if you could spend 10 minutes with President Obama, what would you say?” and “Jenna, do you support the Health Care Bill?” and all the times I stumbled and reworded my answers. I thought of Tony’s stopwatch drills, and filling out paperwork, and calling sponsors, and thinking about what I wanted the judges to know about me. I thought of the fact that I had been distracted by Mimi’s (my cat) recent cancer diagnosis and the many trips to the vet holding her soft little grey and black body in my arms as we sped to make it before closing the night before the pageant. I thought about the amazing group of people who believed in me, supported me, loved me, and cheered me on not just that day but the months preceding the show.

The final result was a flood of tears that I tried to contain so my mascara would not run. I have watched many pageant competitions and admittedly I laughed at “that girl” who cried when she won, and now here I was; the epitome of my former ridicule. No one knew how hard I worked. No one knew how much pressure I put on myself. No one knew how much it meant to me. And at that moment I just didn’t seem to mind what people thought.

So now here I am. Writing my first official message as Miss Gavilan Hills 2010. So what exactly is Gavilan Hills, you ask? Miss Gavilan Hills is the oldest open pageant in the state of California. This Miss Gavilan Hills pageant is labeled as an 'open' pageant. Any female who is a resident of California, between the ages of 17 to 24, never been married and is either working full-time or a student is eligible to compete. Two crowns are awarded at this pageant, because the contestants come from all over the state and must fill the final two contestant slots in the Miss California pageant.

I would also like to congratulate my new sister titleholder, Marina Inserra as Miss Northern California Regional 2010.

I cannot believe I am holding a title that follows so many incredible women I have looked up to for so many years. I told the judges that last year I made a promise to utilize my title to its fullest and try my best to embrace the very foundation of what Miss America is about: service. I mentioned that I took pride in acknowledging that I had, in fact, made many appearances to promote my platform and I would not forget that this title is not simply a ticket to Miss California- but rather my opportunity to use the crown as a microphone to spread the message that we need to get up and do something- volunteer in our communities and appreciate our very blessed lives. I wanted to be someone who would take every advantage of this opportunity to change other people's lives. And I will do my very best in keeping this promise this upcoming year as Miss Gavilan Hills.

As I looked out into the audience and saw my little “Team Harvey” cheering section- equipped with Jenna-heads-on-a-popsicle stick with “Jenna, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna!” down the back side- pink and black curled ribbon flailing wildly in the air, I noticed not only them, but all the family and friends who were there with me that night in spirit as well. I’m a very fortunate young woman and I don’t know what I would do without so much love and support. So thank you to all of my “you know who you are” ‘s.

Here was a little breakdown of my day:
Backstage: It was last year that I discovered first hand something I think needs to be mandatory for all “pageant girls”: a garment rack. I found mine at Bed Bath and Beyond for fairly inexpensive (they start at $19.99). I upgraded for a top shelf to set things on and a bottom “shoe shelf” (I think it was an extra $10.00 for the upgrade). I wanted to go for highest efficiency with my space so I could get things off of the floor and up high. And this year backstage I could not have made a more intelligent decision because space was limited and there was literally nowhere to hang garments. Needless to say, I made LOTS of new friends very quickly.

I set up shop on a nice wobbly tattered table near Shameem, Jacquelyn, Caitlin, and Lana. Lindsay Becker’s mom came to the rescue because in my pharmacy of things, I did not have a 3-prong extension cord. So she buzzed over to the store and came back with a smile and saved my day. I had a surge protector, power strip, and normal 2-prong extension cord, but there were no close outlets. I think there were maybe 4-5 total plugs in that room (remembering there were almost 40 of us crammed in there). I say my “pharmacy” of stuff with a chuckle because one contestant called it that. The conversations backstage are always comical; one girl will tearfully ask if anyone has an extra bobby pin, or safety pin, or thread, “does ANYONE have a safety pin? I just ripped my strap!”, “Does anyone have scissors?”, “Does anyone have hand wipes?” “My head hurts so bad does anyone have aspirin?” My answer: “yes, yes, yes, and yes.” When one very relieved girl came into my “little home” next to the cobwebbed covered box TV and what looks like was once a fireplace in the school play she looks at me with big eyes and exclaims, “You are like a walking pharmacy?!” as I handed her an aspirin and an individual pre-packaged baby wipe. I laughed at the time but thinking back to that simple little anecdote reminded me how much I’ve learned during my years competing in this program.

It’s not about the simple tips of packing bobby pins, Neosporin, a traveling sewing kit, extra nail glue, eyelash glue, etc.; it is about teaching ourselves to be prepared, to be organized, and to think ahead. All of which are important life lessons. Naturally, I picked up ideas throughout these years after watching girls who knew “the tricks of the trade”, but to realize that I finally was able to apply the tricks to make my life a little easier made me satisfied with myself. I’m always open to sharing my packing lists and ideas on that note if anyone ever wants to ask me. Jenharvey22@gmail ;-)

Blue girls in the blue room

Piano players dressed in black: Jacquelyn and I

Lana Brewster and I in our little corner of the room!

Something exceptional happened to me backstage. Now, this sounds kind of silly, but one of my fellow contestants came up to me and told me that she was “kind of star struck” meeting me because she watched me at Miss California last year and she loved me. The words kind of just fell out, “Me? Well, gosh, really? Me? My, oh my, gosh, thanks!” (If you happen to be reading this sweet girl [you know who you are] I love you back and that comment completely made my day. I’ll never forget your sweet words and how special you made me feel. It reminded me how I felt about Miss Hawaii, Raeceen Woolford (who by the way if YOU are reading this-shout out, I LOVE you!) {yea right, THAT would be the day haha. At least I can dream.} I think it was an interesting concept for me to grasp because to ME, someone like Miss Hawaii, or some of our former Miss California’s, or Miss America is someone realllllly awesome and cool, and then, well, there’s me. I figure most people don’t even know who I am! And to think that someone not only remembered me, but took the time out to come up and say hi and say such kind things to me, well, wow! What a great feeling.

Shameem and I before swimsuit

Interview: Interviews were behind by an hour by the time my interview was up, so I had plenty of time to relax and gather my thoughts. As I paced quietly in the holding room, snacking on a chocolate chip cookie (followed by gazes of “is-she-REALLY-eating-that looks) [what?... like Bob Arnhym says, you’ve missed the train a long time ago if you are worried about that now] I listened to my classical piano playlist on my i-pod and silently ran through all the positive things I could think about myself. This is what I do to get me through my interviews. It’s a great motivator to me to remind myself why I think I would be the best pick for this job. This wasn’t a habit that came easily to me; for being such a compliment-giving kind of girl it was always hard for me to pick out things I liked about myself. But throughout these years, I have gained the self-assurance to confidently tell myself what I like about me- a trait more women need to learn and one I wish I would have learned much earlier in my life.

I lint-checked my purple and black interview dress one last time, I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer thanking the Lord for my many blessings, and took one last deep breath as I stepped through that door, pearly whites beaming, heart hopefully radiating my love for life. Encourage and Inspire. Something my beloved Kay Williams told me to remember- which I have never forgotten. Such simple two words, but two words that I choose to live by. 10 minutes flew by. One thing I appreciate about myself is that I am very comfortable talking in front of people. I can only hope judges can appreciate my less “canned” answers and my real emotions that I use. I don’t have perfect grammar, I make odd faces sometimes, sometimes I forget to stand up straight and I slouch a little, I don’t hide my that-was-genuinely-funny laugh (the one we usually try to contain to a polite chuckle among strangers), sometimes I scrunch my nose, sometimes I pause before I speak… but that’s who I am. I was asked about international adoptions and the recent scandal with the Russian-adopted child, my platform, if “blondes really have more fun”, what I learned while volunteering abroad, about my future ambitions, my courses at UCD, and many more questions that challenged my brain.

I always tell myself that if the panel before me doesn’t like exactly who I am, then it wasn’t meant to be. I would rather not win knowing I did everything to remain who I am rather than winning as someone who I am not. Fortunately, I have had more success staying Jenna- followed by a few wasted years of trying to be the Jenna that I thought people wanted to see. I walked out of that room content with every single one of my answers and that was all I could ask for. I rushed back to the dressing room to grab my pink competition binder to write down all the questions I could think of. (It’s a great habit I’ve gotten into over the last few years. First, it helps to distract from anyone who asks you “How did it go?” of course, we all just say, “it went great, they are very nice.” And secondly I like to use them at future dates when preparing for the next competition.)

Apparently the interview room door was semi broken as it only opened from the OUTSIDE-in. So when we were done with our interviews we were instructed to knock on the door to inform Sarah Rutan on the other side to open it to let us out. In my calmness, I blurt out, “Is there a secret code to this? There should be. Knock knock knock-knock knock [pause] knock, knock. I smiled with relief as I burst out of that room and heard someone playfully whisper in the now growing distance, “That was cute.” Did they like me? I’d like to think so.

What was first on my agenda? Well, a very unhealthy meal at Denny's at midnight and sleep, of course, but then I had just a few hours to think about what I wanted to say in my meeting with my Executive Director Joyce the next morning. We met bright and early (well, it was gloomy and rainy and early) to discuss Miss California and what comes next. Orientation is the 23rd-25th of April – 2 weeks exactly from the night I won, and there is a Northern California “Donna’s Field” workshop in San Jose this coming weekend. Last year I attended and the advice I received was invaluable and I certainly attribute much of my success last year to the wonderful committee who put it on.
Grandma Vicki and I

My "pageant manager" Ryan and I

My fabulous, incredible, amazing, fantastic Executive Director (ED) Joyce Patereau

Tony the man and I

Me, Lindsay Becker, Marina Inserra, and Summer Loftis

Celebrating my win with Tony. He's seen me through since the young age of 17. This was a very bittersweet win, as it was my last local I could ever do. He was the the first time, and the last time 6 years later