Getting used to the royal life

Talk about it

Rachel Marzahn was pretty busy this past weekend. Of course, that kind of comes with the territory, being Miss Farmington 2009 and all.

Rachel, 17, was crowned Miss Farmington at the June 18 pageant. She is the daughter of Paul and Deborah Marzahn, and is preparing for her senior year at Farmington High School. Talking with us last week, Rachel admitted she thought her age would hurt her chances, since she was the youngest contestant in the pageant. Obviously, that was not the case.

In high school, she has been a member of the National Honor Society and Family, Career and Community Leadership. She has volunteered for Toys for Town, Trinity Care Center, Feed My Starving Children, Adopt-a-Highway and Mission Trip Support. She is also on the junior board of directors at Roundbank.

Rachel was sponsored by LongBranch Saloon and Supper Club.

What made you decide to become a candidate for Miss Farmington?

Well, I was in the guidance office at school, and just kind of looking through new events you know, and I said, “Miss Farmington, a pageant, that would be something interesting.” I’ve seen it a couple of times. It’s always been fun to watch. I just thought, “You know, I’ll give it a go.” It’d be a good scholarship, it’d be a great way to kind of support the town and be involved. Because I’ve been like, “What can I do and how can I be more involved?” and this is just kind of the perfect opportunity to do that. My mom had been in a pageant before and she was all excited and was ready to help, you know, she was like, “Oh, and we can do this and do what I did.” It was so fun, just in the experience.

What did you do to prepare for the pageant?

I’ve never done anything like this, so at first I was like, “So what do I do?” My mom was kind of, “Well, here’s some stuff I did.” I first of all had to find the fashion outfit on that night. Originally I was going to sew my own formal gown, but I ran out of time at the end. It wasn’t ready, so the Tuesday before we went and found a dress. That was definite prep, finding a dress. I did a lot of prep for each of the things they made us do, like the presentation and the talents. For the talent, I figured I needed to know what I wanted to do. I can dance, and I can sing and I can play bass, but I decided I can sing best. So after I decided that, I had to choose a song.

The song I chose, I was having copyright issues, with the karaoke companies, so there was no copy available that had words. My uncle does music and he sat me down and we made it all, and I made my own back-up vocals for it so we could just do easy CD play the night of the pageant. So I had to practice for that.

And then the presentation. That was the hardest for me. It was like, “What do I want to talk about?” I have two minutes, which can seem like a long time, but I talk a lot so I was like, “What can I fit in two minutes?” So just writing that and practicing it and having it mean something probably took the most time.

Were you nervous Thursday night?

Oh yeah, yeah. Who wasn’t? I was extremely nervous.... Nervous but excited. It was a good nervous. You know, I’ve been waiting for this, waiting for this, now it’s actually time to do it. Got to go up and just do my best. All the girls in the back, we were just talking. You know, when you’re on the stage, you’ve got all the lights, people are there, they’re just watching you. It’s easy to be kind of nervous when you’re the only one. You’re like, “Okay, well, it’s all on me. Let’s see what happens.”

What was the worst part?

I’d probably say the talent portion was the worst part or the most nerve-wracking, because it’s like some of the stuff, you’re on stage ... you’re on stage and the people are dancing with you, or for the speech, your sponsor is up there with you, but for the talent, it’s just you, and the people are there looking to be entertained and see what you have to offer. That was probably the most nerve-wracking, especially for singing. You can never know, is that note going to make it? I don’t know, we’ll wait and see.

Do you remember what went through your mind when Alison put the crown on your head?

“No way.” For me, I was like, “No way.” Because, you’re kind of thinking in your head who you think is going to win, and I had some different people pegged out and they had actually been already crowned, so I was like, “Oh, man, I must be way off from what the judges are thinking or judging on,” you know? And she was over at the other end, by Alisha-Aubrey and I was like, “Oh yeah, it’s probably going to be her,” and then she comes over and puts the crown on my head and I was like, “No way. No way!” My face must have been priceless because my mouth just dropped open. Very surprised.

So your first official duty was to crown the Kiss the Pig winner on Saturday. How was that experience?

It was good. It was cute. I don’t know. The tradition of Kiss the Pig, I think, is hilarious. The whole walk behind, kind of tease the crowd and then eventually crown Dawn (Paget). It was fun. It was a good time.

What were you looking forward to for last weekend’s festivities?

Pizza eating. I don’t know if I’m allowed to be in that, but I would love to. A friend of mine’s band is playing — Jabberwocky — on Saturday, so I’m excited to listen to them. There’s just so much going on, it’s going to be fun.

Have you perfected your parade wave?

I’ve been over all kinds of waves. There’s like the elbow-elbow, wrist-wrist, or the one more like washing the windows, or like my arm got tired and I’m pushing you away. Yeah. I’d say so. I’ll see if I have the arm strength to keep it up.

Tags: miss farmington, rachel marzahn, communities, farmington