Rehearsal Week: A Realistic Schedule

Rehearsal week is the least photographed and most decisive part of a pageant. It is long days in a cold auditorium, food eaten standing up, and hours of waiting punctuated by ninety seconds of walking.

Expect to wait

Most of rehearsal is other people's turns. I stopped treating waiting as dead time and started using it: stretching, going over question frames quietly, or simply sitting down with my feet up, because standing for six hours is its own event.

What I carried every day

• Flat shoes for everything except the actual walk.
• A bottle of water, refilled, and something to eat that is not sugar.
• Safety pins, plasters and a small sewing kit that I lent out constantly.
• A shawl, because auditorium air conditioning is merciless.

Protect your voice

By day three half the contestants are hoarse from talking over music. I keep conversation quiet, drink warm water rather than cold, and save my speaking voice for the question practice that actually matters.

Rehearsal week rewards the woman who conserves, not the woman who performs.

Sleep is training

Six hours will get you through the week and show on your face by the finale. I went to bed early and skipped the late-night group chats, which cost me some fun and bought me a steadier walk.

The day of the show

Eat properly in the morning, because you will not eat again for a long time. Arrive with your hair and skin already prepared as far as your team allows. Then let go of the schedule entirely, because it will change, and the contestants who cope best are the ones who expected that.