Shop ‘Till We Drop

During pageant weekend, we will privately be interviewed by a panel of judges, therefore; we must dress accordingly. During my sophomore year at San Jose State University, I joined Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc., a Latina organization priding ourselves in professionalism. As part of upholding one of our beliefs, we dress in professional wear all day long on our weekly chapter meeting days. During those times, I lived fairly close to campus but was always on the go needing to shoot, film and interview weekly stories for our campus wide news station, Update News*. For me, I found I could achieve all this running around best in perfectly cropped length trousers and a long sleeve buttoned up collared shirt accessorized with a fitted vest. As President of our chapter, I was expected to attend campus wide Greek Organization meetings and report back to my chapter with news and updates. Upon arriving to our meetings, I usually found myself rolling up my sleeves half way preparing myself before presenting to the membership and for unknown psychological reasons, I always felt more confident like that, mentally preparing to get dirty and down to business. As soon as I found out an interview outfit would be required for Miss California Latina, I already knew what my go-to outfit was going to consist of.

The other day my mom and I went window shopping for color and style inspiration. The business look is supposed to be professional yet give a glimpse of each woman’s personality. Though I have the ideal look set in my head, it’s now all about actually finding the pieces of articles. We visited a few stores but didn’t quite find exactly what I’m looking for which led to some disappointment but now that fall is just around the corner, I’m hoping my color choices will be easier to find. Though I do have one gorgeous business dress from Banana Republic that I do consider lucky (simply because I’ve worn it to various interviews/meetings and have always come out a winner) I’m choosing to go with the “men’s look” hoping I’ll stand out showing the judges that I wear the pants in the interview! 

*To view past video projects featured on Update News please visit my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thekassielife/videos
Love,
Kassie P.

 

 

 

 

Girl Power

I discovered my passion for creative writing when I wrote in my first journal at eight years old. Of course most entries at that time were messy scribbles and often referred to the anxiety and uproar over my older sister for hiding my precious Beanie Baby’s but writing had and will always be part of my life. Up until high school, all of my writings had been stashed away in personal journals, that is, until I discovered the internet. Eventually, I was introduced to the world of blogging and it was not long until I soon began sharing some of my life’s experiences online from semester-long multimedia projects to my study abroad adventure and my most recent blog, this pageant journey.

As you can imagine, sharing your views publicly can be a bit scary but luckily and thankfully I’ve always received positive feedback from past readers which has given me the confidence to continue to do what I love- write. Earlier this week, I received a touching email from a Latina reader in the Los Angeles area stating she had actually come across this blog a few months ago and had been keeping up with my posts. She let me know that it was not until she read my experiences that she could relate to that gave her that extra boost of confidence to go through with signing up for a local Miss Guatemalan pageant in her area. I was so honored to have received her email because I believe moments like these are exactly what women, especially women of color need, motivation. Blogging in general makes me happy but what makes me want to have writing become a larger part of my life is when my passion inspires and encourages others around me to do something out of the ordinary.

Though of course the title for Miss California Latina is ultimately a competition, I believe it is going to be very important for me to keep in mind throughout the pageant weekend that I channel my energy in what I can learn from the dozens of other women around me. I will be surrounded by some of the state’s best and classiest women and I too, would like to be inspired to try something new that perhaps I will be introduced to from a fellow pageant mate because after all, if women don’t stand up for one another, who will?

Love,

Kassie P.