To view the Big Brothers Big Sisters segment of the telecast please visit: http://www.bbbs.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=9iILI3NGKhK6F&b=6470175&ct=13344935¬oc=1
To view the full 7 hour telecast visit: http://americangraduate.org/grad-day.html
Big Brothers Big Sister’s write up on me prior to American Graduate Day: http://www.bbbs.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=9iILI3NGKhK6F&b=6470175&ct=13333605
This was by far the greatest and most profound appearance that I’ve made yet as Miss California International. I am so incredibly grateful to American Graduate for giving me the opportunity to share with America the challenging parts of my past and how those events coupled with my fifth grade teacher, my first and most significant mentor, changed my life and set me on a path to success. Statistics prove that youth facing adversity are likely to continue in the vicious cycle if intervention is not given; BBBSA provides children with hope and most importantly the life-altering positive influence that they urgently need. If you are interested in making a significant impact in a child’s life please visit www.BBBSA.org to find a Big Brothers Big Sisters office near you.
Since this was my first trip ever to New York City I decided to take advantage of the trip by extending it for two extra days and explored the city! I took the redeye over on Thursday night and arrived at 8:00 AM on Friday morning. Upon exiting the plane my driver was waiting with a sign that displayed my name (I’m such a nerd, I found this detail to be very exciting! Haha!) I checked into my room and then immediately headed out to track down a NYC slice of pizza (yes, it was only 9:00AM) and then after I skipped on down to Central Park; I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places in my life, but never have I experienced a place so dreamlike. I found a grassy area in the sun near a small bridge and took a seat. It’s rather astonishing that you can hear the birds chirp and leaves rustle in the center of the park; It was the only place that I found in NYC where I could escape the yellow taxi non-stop honking! Under the bridge by which I made my temporary escape from the noisy city was an elderly man who had the most beautiful acapella singing voice I’ve ever heard! Mixed with the acoustics of being under a bridge he sounded magical! I sat in that same sunny, heavenly place for over an hour listening to him sing! After a small nap in my hotel I researched restaurants nearby and enjoyed the evening at a little Irish pub. I met a couple girls who were seated next to me and we spent the evening swapping stories and enjoying the Irish accents of the wait staff that I suspect were fake. What a wonderful first day in NYC!
Saturday was the big event and then after I joined Deanna, Director of Media Relations and Community Engagement for BBBSA, Anwar, and HIS Big Brother Derek and family for a dinner at a fabulous restaurant (Derek and Anwar have been matched for 30 years through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program!)
Sunday was tremendous! I kicked it off with a meal at Ellen’s Stardust Diner where there were back-to-back live performances by the wait staff; they were amazing! If I didn’t have plans for the afternoon I could have spent hours listening to them sing. After brunch I was off to see my first ever Broadway show, Once. After all of the wonderful reviews that I read I had very high hopes, and let me tell you…the show exceeded them BY FAR! I was truly blown away by the performance and fell in love with the lovely cast! I wouldn’t mind seeing Once, more than once!! After the show I wandered around Times Square for a bit and was swept away by a cowboy, literally! (Pictures to follow) After a football game and dinner at a local pub I rushed off to see my second Broadway show, Mamma Mia! The show was lots of fun and was the perfect ending to a perfect day.
Monday I woke up bright and early and found myself standing in the standby line at the Live! with Kelly and Michael show with hopes of making into the studio audience to watch them film the live show. I met a wonderful mother/daughter in line who adopted me as their own for the morning and we anxiously waited across the way at Starbucks swapping stories until 8:45AM when we were finally given the good news that we made the cut….woo hoo!! Kelly and Michael were such a hoot and it was so neat getting to see Daniel Radcliff, Julianne Hough, and Jerry O’Connell!
After the show I jumped into a taxi and was off to the location where the twin towers once stood. When the taxi pulled up to an area that appeared to be a construction site with a winding line of at least 200 people to get inside I asked the driver if he knew what the people in that long line were waiting to see and his reply brought a tear to my eye. He said, “Miss, that is the line to get into the 9-11 memorial and it’s the longest I’ve ever seen it!” I’ve never been more proud to be an American. The fact that the terrorist attack took place 12 years ago, and the memorial has now been open for a full two years and people are still standing in lines among hundreds to get inside, was so heartwarming. We truly do live in the greatest county in the world! When I finally made it inside the walls of the memorial I was speechless; not only were there hundreds of people waiting outside to get in, there were also hundreds of people wandering within the memorial. I spent hours walking around the twin reflecting pools, each nearly an acre in size that now sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history. I was grateful to get the opportunity to listen to several people within the memorial share the stories of how their lives were impacted by the attack and what the memorial now means to them.
After visiting the memorial I walked across the street to a restaurant and made friends with a nearby customer. After chatting for a bit he learned that I had never taken a subway and insisted that I try it out before I leave NYC and offered to show me the ropes. What a thrill! I had such a great time on the subway that I almost wanted to go back and try it again!
Huge thank you to PBS, American Graduate, and Big Brothers Big Sisters for this remarkable experience!
I’m pretty certain that I am the luckiest girl alive!
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