Quinn writes a monthly column for Serenity Assisted Living. The column is centered around a different diabetes topic each month. But for this month, Serenity has asked her to write about how she got started competing for the Miss America Organization. Below is a great way to get to know Quinn Nystrom a little better.
------------------------------------------------
I’m writing this column just three weeks before I compete for Miss Minnesota. To me, competing for this title has never been about strutting around in 4-inch heels and a bathing suit, but instead using the power of the crown to promote my personal platform of diabetes awareness. I know that win or lose, finding a cure for diabetes is my life’s mission.
Some people ask me why I compete. In September 1998 I sat with my mom and watched Miss America be crowned in Atlantic City. That year was a first for the pageant. The first ever Miss America was crowned with a chronic illness, her name was Nicole Johnson and she was a type-1 diabetic. At the time I had a little brother with diabetes and it was so inspiring for me to watch her achieve her ultimate dream, knowing that my little brother Will could do the same. Six months later I was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. My world was shattered. I remembered back to when I saw Nicole be crowned and knew that even though my world as I knew it was over, that if Nicole could do anything she set her mind to, so could I.
Fast forward three years. I was selected as National Youth Advocate for the American Diabetes Association. I would spend my year speaking to over 70,000 people about diabetes. That was the year that I met Nicole. It was odd meeting someone who I had admired so much for so many years. She was so kind to me and took me under her wing.
In 2004 they were holding a Miss America preliminary pageant in my hometown of Brainerd. I was lobbying out in Washington, D.C. with Nicole and I told her about it. She said, “Quinn, you have to compete. I will send you my jewelry and dresses to choose from. I know you will win.” I laughed and told her that I had never performed a piano piece before an audience. She said that what mattered was that I had a voice and a passion in my heart to find a cure for diabetes and the rest would just fall into place. I stepped on-stage so nervous feeling like a complete fish out of water. I wore her Miss America Homecoming gown (see picture). I ended up winning that night.
I went on to spend 365 days being Miss Brainerd. When I walked into a classroom little girls would look right up to the crown and hang on to every word that came out of my mouth. That’s when I realized what the Miss America pageant was all about. It was not about the glitter and the glamour, it was about beauty is what beauty does. I met the granddaughter of a former Miss Brainerd. Cara was 5-years old at the time and a type-1 diabetic. Her Mom asked me if I would go out to lunch with them. As we were sitting at lunch I took my Miss Brainerd crown out to show Cara. She looked at me and said, “Wow! When I grow up I want to be just like you.” Her Mom took a picture of us, with Cara wearing the crown, and beaming ear to ear. As we were leaving her Mom told me that she keeps an album of diabetics that have lived their lives without limits to show Cara, and that she would put our photo in there. And at that moment I knew I had done what Nicole had done for me years before, show someone else that everything is possible, despite having diabetes. I went on to compete for Miss Minnesota 2005, and though I didn’t win, no one could take away the memories and the impact that I was able to make that year.
Now with just three weeks before I compete for my second chance at Miss Minnesota, I'm anxiously awaiting. Becoming Miss Minnesota is a dream of mine because it would get me that much closer to finding a cure for diabetes for people like my little brother Will, Cara, Nicole, myself, and the other 24 million Americans who live with this disease.
I know the fight to find a cure is formidable, some might say it’s impossible. But I will never stop working towards this goal. Diabetes may shorten my life, but it does not have the power to diminish it.
~Quinn Nystrom...Miss Midwest & Diabetes Advocate
No comments:
Post a Comment