Alexis Barton

And when the big night came, I whirled into the theater, and I marched up to the microphone, kind of like this one, and I said, my name is Alexis Barton, and I'm a junior majoring in English at UAB, and my motto is, it's not what you're called, it's what you answer to.

And they bought it.

Just like y'all did.

And then, I was,

Dancing to the edge of the stage in my fitness wear and holding my eight count.

Like my life depended on it.

Because I didn't know what an eight count was before a pageant.

And then I was in my little tweed suit chewing up the scenery for my dramatic monologue because I was not going to perform on the piano.

And by the time I went to change into my mother's evening gown that I had borrowed, I realized I was having fun.

And I realized something else as I looked at the other girls as they changed and I saw that they were shook.

One was crying because she had missed the opening choreography steps and another was crying because her boyfriend hadn't showed up for the pageant and one was crying because she had a new pimple that they didn't have concealer for.

And I realized that we weren't all that different.

We were all swans growing into our wings, paddling furiously, trying not to make fools of ourselves.

And I went back out for that final question and I could take a deep breath like I'm doing now and relax.

And I found my parents' eyes in the audience and locked on them and I realized that I had always been a princess to them.

So when they called the top 10 and my name was included, I wasn't really surprised.

I had as good a chance as anyone else I knew by then.

And then it was top seven, top five, top two.

And it was me and one other girl standing there under the hot light like this one.

And my hope, my heart thundered in my chest and it rose up in my throat.