From the first day of practice to pageant day, I felt like I was on a very long and never-ending roller coaster. I faced many ups and downs during this journey but I learned to grow everyday with my pageant sisters. One month of practices passed by so fast, but I remembered every single detail of my experiences on pageant day. The night before pageant, I was sleeping over at a pageant sister’s house and both of us were extremely nervous and feeling anxious about pageant day. We practiced our introduction repeatedly and answered questions from previous pageants to help prepare for the big day. We also steamed our ao dai and made sure that our outfits would be nice and straight for the pageant. The whole night, I was too nervous to go to sleep so I had very minimum sleep.
The next day, I woke up with unsymmetrical eyelids, one eye was normal while the other eye was a monolid. My makeup artist tried her best to make my eye shadow look even but it was unsuccessful. With uneven eye shadow, I drove to the theater and arrived very early because I didn’t want to be late. That morning, I didn’t have time to get breakfast or snacks, but either way, my stomach was filled with butterflies to eat anything. An hour before the show started, I began to receive messages from friends and families encouraging me and cheering me on. Suddenly, my nervousness was gone and I started to become more relaxed. I remember all of us were singing and dancing in the dressing room. We were having the time of our lives in the dressing room before the show. Then, it suddenly hit me that pageant will be over soon and I might not see some of these girls again. They are like my sisters now and I started to feel sad and anxious again.
The show started and we performed our introduction dance. It was a successful dance because we’ve been practicing the dance since day one. We changed into our ao dai and then evening gown. Time just flew by so quickly because by the time we were done changing to our white ao dai, it was time for the Top 8. I was anxious when they called out my name because I thought I didn’t do as well as I hoped when answering questions on the spot. My speech was lacking compared to the other girls and I was stumbling trying to answer the questions fluently. Soon enough, it was Top 5 and my number was called. They took me to the back to listen to music while the other contestants answered the question on stage one by one. I was the last one to answer the question and I was very nervous. I thought I did really badly because I kept on repeating my thoughts over and over again.
In a blink of the eye, pageant was coming to an end. It was suddenly time for crowning. It was the most nerve-wrecking moment of my life. I didn’t anticipate that I was going to win something. They called my name for Miss Talent and I was very surprised. Then, standing there smiling and pictures were taken. They called my name again, for 2nd Princess. That moment, I thought I heard something wrong or maybe it was not my name. My heart stopped beating for like a second and then I walk to the middle of the stage again for the 2nd Princess crown. I couldn’t believe that I won two titles that night.
Now, as your 2nd Princess and Miss Talent, I hope to carry through my responsibilities to serve the community and the people in other areas as well. I look forward to all the events and new experiences acquire while using this opportunity to inspire others to do things they are passionate for. I hope to connect the youth of our community with the older generation.