Ask any little girl what she wants to be when she grows up, many will say she wants to be a princess. Growing up, I don’t really remember wanting to be a princess of any sort, but I do know that once I got to high school, I wanted to be nominated for homecoming queen.

For me, that chance never came. In my graduating class, there were over 200 students. We had two homecomings- one in the fall during football season and the second during basketball season. The seniors were the ones who would pick the candidates while the whole school would vote for who they thought should win. My name was never chosen. To me, homecoming at our school was for the preppy people or the jocks and the cheerleaders. I wasn’t any of those.

After I got to college, I didn’t think much more about it. Where I went to college, there was no football team, so that possibility was ruled out and the thought never crossed my mind about having it during basketball.

My first year went by without getting nominated, but one of my friends was nominated king. The next year went by the same way. I didn’t get nominated, but another friend got nominated queen. Finally, my third year came.

One night at our student senate meeting, our sponsor said that we needed to vote for homecoming candidates for our club. The queen nomination was between myself and another girl. She got the vote. I still had Christian Challenge to get nominated from. So, at our next meeting, I brought it up to our sponsor. My friend nominated me, and I nominated one of the guys for king.

About a week or so later, the campus was able to vote on five candidates from a list of twenty or twenty five. The next day while I was in work study, one of the teachers came in and told me congratulations. I had no idea what she was talking about until she told me that I got into the top five for homecoming queen candidates. I was so excited.

Once I was done with work study, I went to my dorm room and called my mom. She told me that she was proud of me.

February 14, 2004 was the homecoming game. My parents, my sister, and one of my brothers all came to watch. After the girls game was finished, the candidates walked out onto the court as they were announced. Finally, it came down to who would be voted king and queen. I kept thinking of how badly I wanted to be voted queen, but in the end, I didn’t get the vote. To me, that was okay because for the first time in my life, I felt like I was popular and people actually knew who I was.

My family made me feel just as special. My step dad brought me flowers. I thought that was pretty cool. A few days later, my mom sent out an e-mail with one of the pictures she had taken. She had put, “She didn’t get queen, but looked like a princess.” Many of my family members sent me cards telling me how proud they were of me and how happy they were for me. They also said that it didn’t matter if I won or lost, I was still a winner, a princess, a queen.