"I pictured it in my head so many times that when it was actually happening it was hard to believe," she said. "I didn't cry nearly as much as I thought I was going to though."
She said that there's a lot to get done in this first week, but the reality has sunk in now.
Although there will be a few challenges, but she is more than ready for them.
"I'm sure it will be difficult being away from home so much, but that will be part of the excitement, to see parts of the state I have never seen before," she said. "I am fully aware that I will most likely face some challenges with my platform (which is life awareness - improving mental health and preventing suicide). There is such a stigma with mental illness and with suicide, so I'm prepared to deal with people who say 'I don't want you to come talk about that,' but the reality is that we need to get the word out. We need to be able to talk about it so that we can prevent it." For the past five years, she has been working with various organizations including the North Dakota Chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and the Mental Health America of North Dakota. She said the one thing she has not yet been able to do is speak to students.
"Going on school tours is what I am looking forward to the most because that's something I have been denied in the past, and I'm really excited to have that opportunity now," she said.
Since the school tour will be her biggest responsibility in the upcoming months, her goal is to speak to as many people as she can and spread resources in order to let people know the warning signs and ultimately prevent suicides.
She will also be tailoring her presentations for different age groups.
"Certainly for middle school and high school students I will talk about suicide awareness, but for the younger students you don't necessarily want to jump in with that, so I will most likely be adjusting it and letting them know who they can go talk to if they're feeling sad and how they can deal with their problems. I would really like to focus on self esteem, especially for young kids," she said.
As far as how she chose her platform, she said it was through personal experience.
"Someone I know has struggled with depression and I've seen the effects," Jones said. "It is devastating but it can also get better. I have seen that person get better, so I want other people to be able to have that hope, help their loved ones and see that growth as well."
Another essential part of the Miss America Organization is their partnership with the Children's Miracle Network (CMN), and Jones is already very involved with that organization.
"I grew up in Fargo, my mom works at MeritCare Hospital, so I grew up volunteering for MeritCare and for Miracle Network, and the Children's Hospital in Fargo is a CMN hospital," she said. "I've been doing quite a bit the last year with the coordinator there, and so I plan to continue volunteering and raising money for the Children's Hospital as well."
In her work with CMN, Jones has assisted with different fund raisers. Just a few weeks ago she helped out with a televised CMN fund raiser and she has also helped with call-a-thons and the radio-a-thon, and plans to continue volunteering for CMN.
"This last year I donated 100 of my own mint condition Beanie Babies to the Children's Hospital, and so those will be used for care packages of siblings of neo-natal premature babies," she said. "So there is always something people can do to help."
However, perhaps the most important goal of the Miss America Organization is to award scholarships. Just from competing, Jones will receive over $10,000 in scholarships and will be able to graduate from college debt-free, which not very many students can say.
"The great thing about this organization is that it opens up doors for so many opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise," she said.
Her pageant experiences also helped her get hired at her current job.
"I work at Valley Printing in Fargo, which is a print shop. I do graphic design work and customer service there but I got that job because my boss saw me speaking as a local titleholder and was so impressed with the skills that I had gained that he offered me a job even though I didn't know anything about print. That job now pays tuition reimbursement for my classes that are relevant to the job which, with my field, that's pretty much everything. So not only do I get the scholarships from Miss North Dakota, but the tuition reimbursement from my job which I wouldn't have received if I hadn't been involved with this organization. I like to say it's like the gift that keeps on giving," Jones said.
Making use of those scholarships, she is majoring in Art and Design - Photography with a minor in Mass Communications at Minnesota State University - Moorhead. She will be taking a year off from her studies to devote herself to her duties as Miss North Dakota and promote her platform, but said she plans to document her travels and experiences with pictures in the coming year.
She also has a piece of advice for younger girls hoping to one day fill her spot as Miss North Dakota.
"Never give up," she said. "This was my fourth attempt for the title and it gets harder every year to keep coming back, but you learn so much more about yourself, and honestly the past three years I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for the job, but this year I know what the job takes and I'm willing to do it. You can never give up on something you truly want and perseverance really pays off, and if you want something you just have to go for it. It's a hard lesson to learn but it pays off in the end."
Jones is a veteran of the pageant system, and is proof that hard work can pay off. She has been competing since she was 12, and this is her fourth year being involved with the Miss America Organization.
She will, of course, be preparing to compete for the title of Miss America, and the final competition will be held Jan. 24.
"We will be there for about two weeks, and there will be three nights of preliminary competitions with the finals on that Saturday," Jones said.
She will again be performing a classical piano arrangement by Claude Debussy, which she played last Saturday at Williston High School.
She said she will do her best in the competition.
"It's not so much that you prepare to win Miss America. You prepare as best you can, and then somebody gets to be Miss America. There are going to be 51 other extremely deserving young women who have represented their states really well who have worked very hard. Everybody is worthy of the job but somebody gets that opportunity for a year. So I just will do everything I can to prepare myself and go there and do my best, and then whatever happens happens."
Jones has been playing piano for 13 years and learned from her grandmother, who is a piano teacher and an accordion teacher.
Her parents are Kathy and Ken Jones, and she also has a 23-year-old brother, Josh Jones.
She said that in competing for the state title, she came to realize that it's all about the journey, not the end destination.
"The further I got into the system, the more I realized that I wasn't doing these things to become Miss North Dakota. In the process it has shaped me into the person I want to become, so competing for Miss North Dakota was the vehicle for making me become a better person and has made me who I am today."
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