Freedom!

I started a blog for the first time when I spent the summer living in Boston. I thought it would help keeps friends and family updated about my activities. Over time, it became a way to chronicle my journey to the Miss Virginia pageant and the great deal of community service I did as part of that.

Now that I am officially retired from the pageant world of Miss Virginia, I can exercise a little more freedom in my opinions about things, particularly pageants. I've never "censored" myself, but I've been careful about what's been said because I keep track of all the visits and searches people make to find this blog. I've been writing creatively most of my life, whether it's fictional stories or just writing about life. In this new year, I'm excited about the opportunity to return to writing for my sake.

Despite the fact that my blog has mostly followed pageant happenings, I think there are many things about me that just never came up- or never seemed appropriate in this setting. For example, while in Boston I lived in a disgusting fraternity house right next to the river (tip: don't put your friends in charge of finding housing). I decided to eventually hide my blogs about the ridiculous happenings in this house because I thought people would take it the wrong way. But the fact is, all the girls competing are real people. You wouldn't want a Miss Virginia or Miss America who wasn't. But that experience is all part of what made me who I am.


Most people also don't know that last spring I embarked on a project to write a book about dating between men and women, following the encouragement of a college English professor to tell the tales of how men and women communicate.

Many people don't know that I'm working on a master's thesis about mail-order brides, exploring areas of research largely untouched by scholars.

So, in this new year, I'll be more about embracing who I am!

Thanks for reading,

L