The Privilege of Being A Sister by Hannah Utic

Since coming home to beautiful Alaska, everyone of course wants to know “what was Miss America like?!” My knee jerk response is “it was the most chaotic two weeks of my life,” because it feels impossible to completely describe the surreal, incredible, wild, tiring, once in a lifetime experience that it was. But as I try to play back every aspect of the experience in my own head, there is one class of moments that I come back to every time as the most special ~ the sisterhood. While I think it goes without saying that the bond with the fifty other sisters in our Miss America class is one of the absolute most precious things I took away from this experience and I made friends for life, what I actually am talking about is the Miss Alaska sisterhood. 

More times than not, Miss America has been held somewhere on the east coast, which obviously means quite the travel journey for Alaskans. Because of this, historically, very few former Miss Alaskas have been able to go back and cheer on their newest addition to the sisterhood. Knowing this, I am not sure I have ever felt more special than when FIVE of my favorite Miss Alaska sisters told me they were coming to Florida to cheer me on. Miss Alaskas 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2021, as well as a forever Miss Anchorage and our Miss Anchorage’s Teen all sacrificed greatly to be there and I could not be more grateful. The bond shared within the sisterhood is something that can't really be explained, so to have my biggest fans physically there was so incredibly special. 

So when I think back, my favorite memories are the ones the world didn't get to see: finally having a free couple hours and getting to have brunch with them; getting up extra early each day after four hours of sleep to get Starbucks, a good convo and a morning hug from one of my best friends in the world, Miss Alaska 1991, who was experiencing Miss America again exactly thirty years later, but this time with me; them dragging all my stuff (and me) back to my room each night after visitation, and even having to take my heels off because I was too exhausted to even move; the morning after debrief…. These are the moments that may seem insignificant to an observer but are truly what carried me through the week. It was the honor of a lifetime to get to represent Alaska on the Miss America stage, but it is the unbelievable privilege of being in the Miss Alaska sisterhood forever that I will always cherish the most. 

-Hannah Utic, Miss Alaska 2023