Pageant week is here again.

Some of you can’t get enough and others probably wish they didn’t have to read about it any more.

For me it brings back some really great memories of my first few weeks in Vicksburg, which was heavily inundated with crowns and glitter and new friends.

After a couple weeks full of nights in an empty apartment with nothing but an air mattress and the NBA Finals to keep me company, I was glad to venture outside my home and into a world of well educated, philanthropy-minded women who welcomed our guest photographer Alaina Denean Deshazo and me with open arms.

Deshazo will join us again this year to photograph the spectacle that is the weeklong pageant. She is truly one of the best photographers I’ve ever known, and I’m glad I can now call her friend.

We were both caught off guard to become so enthralled in the pageant, but spending countless hours around these women changed our minds on pageants and drew us into the entire process.

Last year she was only able to spend five days with us, but this year we will have her for a full seven-day week. After she left we texted endlessly about the happenings on the pageant, as it was still ongoing after her departure. She even patched in to a live feed of the final event.

The endless texting continued the night of Miss America in September when our Miss Mississippi 2015 Hannah Roberts was named first runner up.

The pageant also brought me closer to co-workers Terri Frazier and Austin Vining because we sat together for four consecutive nights watching the preliminary and final night of competition in the Vicksburg Convention Center. I’ll always cherish the photo we took together in front of the backdrop after one night of competition. It was when I knew I truly enjoyed spending time with my fellow Post employees whether it was work related or not.

I believe the first column I ever wrote was published the Monday after pageant week. As I read over that initial column I am at first struck by how semi-clever I was and wonder whatever happened to my creative spirit, but aside from that, I remember being impressed with the community’s involvement in the pageant.

So many moving parts and people and it all seemingly went off without a hitch because of the cooperation of those invested in making it the best production it could be.

 

Alana Norris is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at alana.norris@vicksburgpost. com.