I also have a cat, a Russian Blue/Maine Coon mix, named "Squibb".

I am in the fifth grade at Sausolito Elementary, and I love school.  I score very good grades; my parents are very proud of me.

I love to do many things, but my favorite thing of all is competing.  (Or it used to, of which I'll share the reasons why later.)  I compete in beauty pageants, something I've done all my life.  Now, I realize that this isn't for everybody, but I enjoy meeting other kids my age, and it  helps me to become more confident in life, and it's helped my singing/dancing a lot.

One of the biggest wishes I have is to become a well known singer/actress.  I think my experience in beauty pageants or talent competitions will be the perfect springboard to jumpstart my career.

I have met many exciting people in music/television, and I enjoy the excitement/drama that competing brings to me.  Now, sometimes the kids can get mighty stuck up, but I'm not that way; I'm just a very happy, well-adjusted kid who knows what she wants out of life.

While weekends are reserved for pageants or church, during the weekdays, I'm just your basic, normal, everyday kid.  That is, I go to school, I have chores I have to do without fail, roughhouse with my brother (when we're not arguing that is; he can drive me crazy sometimes!), and spoil my adorable kitty.  I love weekdays the best, because I don't have the pressure of competing hanging over me.

I can be myself, enjoy life.

Now, mama has this fancy notion of me being the next Miss America or something.  This is why I'm in pageants.  It's okay, but at times it gets boring, and this is when I wish the stage could open up, swallow me whole, or be transported back home, where I can sleep in, do my own thing.  That's probably the worst thing about pageants, besides all the practicing I have to do (an hour each day), or the preparation it takes to get ready for my few minutes on stage.

I also don't like looking like a little adult.  All that excess makeup makes me break out, and all that excess hairspray makes my head feel like it's crawling with bugs.  UGH!!  I'd rather go au natural, without makeup, look more like the little girl I am, instead of looking like a fancy mini Britney Spears or something.  That's not me.

I am trying to summon up the courage, tell mama I don't want to do this, the pageant thing, anymore.  I've been doing it since I was really little, and I am getting bored with it.  I want to be a normal kid; suddenly competing doesn't seem so fun anymore. 

Is it too much to ask for me to have a normal kid's life?  Because my life is anything but normal, and I HATE it at times!

Well, I'll be writing in here soon.  I would like to write more about myself, share my story, with others.  You haven't heard the last from me!  Take care and God bless!

~Love, your new friend in California, Katherine Suzanne McComb, aged 10.