Well, there go two common stereotypes: that cliched idea that anyone who enters a beauty contest doesn’t ponder big issues and the cliched idea that today’s generation is more interested in self than society:
EVERETT, Washington – Miss Everett Teen USA 2004 is putting away her sash to put on a U.S. Army uniform.
Last summer, Jennifer Cabanayan appeared at community events, including the Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival and the National Night Out Against Crime, as Miss Everett Teen USA 2004. Now she has enlisted in the Army and will leave for boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C., on Aug. 11.
The petite brunette says Army service has always been in the back of her mind.
“I’m capable, I’m healthy. This is the right thing to do,” said Cabanayan, who attended Cascade and Marysville-Pilchuck high schools before earning her GED. “I cannot wait for that moment of putting on a uniform. It gives you that honor.”
Paulene Saylor, Cabanayan’s mother, said her daughter comes from a military family. Saylor’s father, Otis Saylor of Stanwood, served two tours in Vietnam with an Army airborne unit. His granddaughter will follow in his boot steps. After basic training, she’ll go to airborne jump school at Fort Benning, Ga.
“I’ve shed a lot of tears, but I’m really proud of her. I encouraged my boys to join the military. I didn’t think she was listening,” said Saylor, a mother of four whose oldest son was in the Navy.
Admirable.
With beauty that’s not just outside…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.