Salad Stories

Today I did not do three things.

* My hair.

* My makeup.

*Wear not pajamas.

Today I did three things.

*School work.

*Paint newspapers on my nails.

*Got creative when I realized I had nothing but 2 cheese sticks, some noodles, and a bit of fruit in my entire house for me to eat.

Tomorrow I will do something.

*Go grocery shopping.

I don't like eating fruit like nectarines, apples, pears, things like that like a normal person. They get caught in my teeth, and I am very specific about my teeth. But! If you cut out little pieces, you no longer have that problem! 

Two years ago at this time, I was standing off stage at the Egyptian Theater, feeling like the coolest person in the world, and nervous as all get out. Two years ago at this time, I was participating in the Junior Miss Pageant, now known as The Distinguished Young Women of America Pageant. 

I would never ever tell a young girl to do a pageant. Getting heavily involved in those I don't view as a good idea, for me at least. Other people are more than welcome to! But in this, I learned some very important things, that I'd never give back. 

I learned a confidence of performing by myself in front of judges, I've never done that before.

I made friends with several very amazing young women, and we've kept in contact through the years. It's really fun to see how we've grown up in these two years, and where we've ended up. 

I grew a confidence. I may not have gotten first place in the pageant, but they told us something really great before competing. "We're not picking a winner from a group of representatives, we're picking a representative from a group of winners." 

They told us a story about carrots. Imagine you're making a salad, and you stinkin need lettuce, because come on. How in the world did you think you could have a salad without that? So you go to the store to pick up lettuce and just lettuce. Then all of the sudden, BAM, you run into a sale. Carrots. On sale.

They're beautiful. They're crisp looking. They look absolutely delicious. But dang it, you needed lettuce! You can't get the carrots, you had a mission to get lettuce. You start to walk away, and the sprinklers come on, and make the carrots glisten in the sun.

They are everything you could want in a carrot. The most beautiful carrots in the world. But they aren't lettuce. And even though you want them so much, you need lettuce.

Not everyone gets to be lettuce in their life! Sometimes we're lettuce. Sometimes we're carrots. But just because we aren't what a certain person is looking for doesn't mean we aren't the most delicious carrot in the world. Some day that person might need carrots. Or maybe not. But people will always want glistening glorious carrots. You're not of less value because you're a carrot.