April...A Great Month!
WOW!
That is all I have to say for the month of April. I had such a great month! On
the 20th I traveled down to Fargo to have a girl’s night with Mrs.
ND, Ashley, and Miss Teen ND, Olivia. We spent the night catching up on how we
were doing with our crazy schedules and life in general. We have such a close
bond between us, and we are each other support systems. We can all relate to
the craziness in our lives and so it is really nice to talk about it. I
classify them as my sisters, and wish I could see them every day. We stayed at
Olivia’s house, and the next morning we had the Heart Walk in Fargo. We all got
up early in the morning and headed over to the Scheels Arena. We took photos
with tons of people, and we encouraged women to sign up to receive information
each month on heart disease. We even took part in the walk, and it was such a
great event.
After
the event was over with, I drove back to Grand Forks for my sorority’s parents
formal. It is my favorite dance of the year. It is a night that we share with
our parents what we have been doing throughout the year, and a night that the
seniors are recognized. Even though I have one more year of school left, this
is my last year in my sorority Delta Gamma. Parents also write the seniors
letters of advice, and the letter that my parents wrote me was wonderful. It
was full of inspirational quotes and my favorite one they included was “God has
3 ways of answering things: He’ll say ‘yes’ and give you what you want, He’ll
say ‘wait’ and give you something better, or He’ll say ‘no’ and give you the
best!” Faith is a HUGE part of my life and this quote really meant a lot to me.
The night was full of sad and happy memories, but my favorite part of the night
was seeing my family. It was the first year that my mom came! In the past, it
has always just been too hard for her to try to come. She always promised me that
she would come my senior year and she did! My dad, grandma, sister, and brother
came as well. Although they couldn’t stay because my mom was tired, I enjoyed
every minute with them. Each year at our parent’s formal there is also a
father-daughter dance, and it is something that has always meant a lot to me.
My dad does so much for me, and it was great to have a special moment thanking
him for everything that he has done for me.
This
brings me to last week, which was full of school work. Even though my finals
aren’t for a couple weeks, most of my classes are finished already. Everything
was due last week and so it was a pretty crazy week for me. I only have two
more exams and so I have a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I had a great
semester! Even though school is almost done, I still have a lot going on. This
last Saturday on April 28th, Grand Forks had their Walk to Defeat
ALS. I was a team captain and recruited people to be on my team. We raised
money and attended the walk. I was very fortunate and even got to speak at the
event. I shared a little about my mom’s and my story, why ALS awareness is so
important, and why we need support. I had a wonderful time speaking, and I even
brought some tears to people’s eyes. So many people came up to me after the
walk to talk about family members in their lives that were affected by ALS. I
am just so happy to be able to help out the ALS Association, raise money, and
inspire people. My mom is so thankful and happy for everything that I am doing,
and it is because of her that I have passion to fight this disease with her. I
may not physically have ALS, but I am fighting it just as hard as my mom by
raising awareness, money, and telling our stories to inspire others. I plan on attending every walk I can in ND, MN, and SD. I am
heading to Bismarck this next weekend May 4th for their Walk to
Defeat ALS and next week my sister and I fly out to Washington D.C. for ALS
Advocacy Days! I am so excited, so be watching for my upcoming blogs in the
next couple weeks to hear all about it!
May is
ALS Awareness month so each time I blog this month, I am going to give a
couple facts about ALS at the end of my blogs starting with:
·
Every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed
with ALS and every 90 minutes another person loses their battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease.
·
ALS can strike ANYONE, and there is NO
cure for ALS
Love always,
Erica Lemna
Miss ND
International
