Marina Inserra

Hello World! Its Me, Marina...

With family located in all four corners of the country, and friends who are just as busy as I am, I have finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a blog! From now on, I will update with stories and pictures of my great adventures in this journey called life. :)

To start this blog off, I'd like to share a little about my life in the Miss California Organization and the pageant that I just competed in. In April, I was crowned Miss Northern California 2010 in San Jose, Ca. I knew it would lead to a year long adventure to be had and many memories to be made.

Prepatation for the Miss California pageant began that very next day. For the next two months, I would brush up on my interview skills and current events. As well as prep my body for swimsuit and my voice for talent!

July 1st, was the day to pack up and head to the Miss California pageant!

My Crowning Moment!

My roommate for the week, Saundra Combs, Miss San Diego Cities 2010, and I packed up my car - with very little room to spare! - and headed to Fresno, CA for the week long activities that would lead to the crowning of Miss California 2010.
This was Saundra's fourth time competing at the Miss California Pageant. I was so happy to room with her knowing she would be able to show me the ropes. Two years ago, she roomed with Jackie Geist when she was crowned Miss California 2008.
Saundra and I not only became interview partners, workout buddies, and pageant sisters, but we became life long friends.

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Dressed and ready for my private interview!

In the race for the crown, 56 beautiful young ladies competed in five areas of competition: interview, talent, swimsuit, evening wear, and on-stage question. As the 8th person in the first group, my interview was held on Saturday. 10 minutes with 6 judges firing questions at you can be pretty intense! They asked questions ranging from my personal platform of Breast Cancer Awareness to political questions and hot topics about our country.

Three days of rehearsing and pageant prepping later, the preliminary competition began! On the first day of competition, I competed in swimsuit. After months of cutting back on sugars and carbs, my hardwork was finally getting put to use. Thank goodness my roomie Saundra and I became best friends with Tony Horton and his "P90X Plyometrics" video. Strutting your stuff on stage to "Fever" you would think would be very nerve wracking... well, it was...

But it also felt great! Especially because I was able to walk off stage and head straight for the freezer where a lovely carton of Rocky Road ice cream was waiting with my name on it. Yummmmm!

Sara Risvold and I excited to eat after swimsuit competition.

Day number two of competition was the always dreaded On-Stage Question competition. As I reached my hand into the fishbowl to pull my question, all I could think about was the countless conversations on capital punishment, the Gulf Coast oil spill, and President Obama's progress in office. As Stephanie Baldwin, Miss California 2001, read my question, I smiled. "What is your opinion on Arizona's immigration law?" Comending Arizona for standing up for themselves and their state rights, I could hear the crowd agreeing with me. Hopefully the judges did too!

After sleeping in the next day (which felt amazing!!), we headed down to the theatre for another day of competition. That night was the elegant presentation of evening wear. I was so very excited for this day all because of the dress that I was going to wear. Jackie Geist, Miss California 2009 had this gown in her closet and was going to wear it for her competition the year she won. Thanks to her, and Mary McCaman, I was able to borrow the dress, get it altered, and then walk out on stage and shine! Wearing that dress made me feel like Miss America. It's beautiful liquid beading and front panel rouching made for the perfect gown. I can't wait for the day I get to put that dress on again!

The final night of competition... Talent! When I competed at the locals this year (San Diego, Los Angeles, and Sweeps) I sang the song "Gimmie Gimmie" from the musical Thouroughly Modern Millie. Having worked on this song for months in my class at San Diego State, I felt very prepared to sing it at Miss California. Unfortunately, just weeks before I won my title, Sarah Salazar won the title of Miss Tustin singing "Gimmie Gimmie". I was a little upset when I found out that she chose to sing it for State... especially knowing how well she can sing! For the record, Sarah won a Prelim talent award and a Non-Finalist Talent award! But everything worked out when I found the song "One Night Only" from the musical Dreamgirls. Performing the song on stage was such an incredible feeling! I worked very hard, with very little time, but was very excited to perform it!

After four days of prelim competitions, came finals night! The announcement of the top 12 was awefully nerve wracking... and sad to say, my name was not called. But the competition didn't end there. The top twelve raced backstage to get ready for a repeat of swimsuit, talent, evening gown, and on-stage question. As I was sitting backstage with the other 44 girls, eating nachos, leftover enchiladas, and vanilla ice cream, all I could think about was how happy I was for the other 12 girls out there on stage.

Shortly after, we were all brought back out on stage to announce the winner... but first, a few other awards were announced. And I am so proud to say that this time my name was called for...

Prelim Swimsuit Winner!!!
:)

I was so happy for all of my hard work to pay off... and all I could do was smile!
But there was one more thing to do, announce the winner...

and then the new Miss California 2010 is...

Miss California 2010 - Arianna Afsar
1st Runner Up - Ruth Stainer
2nd Runner Up - Laura Jean Berger
3rd Runner Up - Shyranya Mahkopadayh
4th Runner Up - Saundra Combs

Throughout the week, all of the wonderful girls competing attended luncheons, rehearsals, and visitations. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the week at Miss Ca!

Joyce, My wonderful ED!