Beauty Pageant Contestant to Represent MIHI!
Made in His Image is exceedingly excited to announce that a beauty pageant contestant will be representing us later this month. The following is written by the beautiful contestant. Read on and please say a prayer for her.
The Beauty of Beauty Pageants:
My grandma is from the Philippines and always wanted me to be Miss Philippines. Every time she brought it up, I told her I probably would never do a pageant in my life and man was I wrong.
When I was a freshman in college, I saw a flyer in my dorm hallway for a scholarship pageant. I wanted to find out more about it so I went to the informational meeting, not thinking by the end of it that I would have committed myself to competing in my first Miss South Dakota State University.
The entire experience brought me more confidence than I thought a pageant would and became more than a scholarship pageant to me. I ended up doing three more pageants in my college career and learned something new every time. Although, I didn’t win any titles, I improved my interview and public speaking skills, and met some amazing women along the way. Most of the women I competed with were intelligent, driven, kind and helpful. What I found most meaningful about the pageant was not only how the entry fee was actually raising a certain amount of funds for Children’s Miracle Network, but also choosing a personal platform to promote.
My platform is Made in His Image.
I didn’t think I was going to compete in another pageant because I graduated college last May from South Dakota State University and live in Minnesota now. However, when I came across a post Maura wrote for FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) about how she started Made in His Image, an idea was born. What if I choose Made in His Image as my platform? I have someone very close to me who suffered from an eating disorder and it is battle everyday to choose the healthy instead of the self-harming route, but she is winning and I am so proud of her. She didn’t go to Made in His Image for help, but I learned and I’m still learning so much of how to just rely on the Lord and to pray and love her with all my heart.
The pageant gives me the opportunity to spread the beautiful message of how we are all made in the image and likeness of God and how we need to remember the beauty we already have. My platform is not only a portion of the pageant for me, but a theme. In the past, I’ve worn two-piece swimsuits because I thought that’s what you have to do to win, but I want to promote modesty and decided to go with a 50’s inspired one-suit. I want to show how beauty and confidence come from within at this pageant. I want to embrace the celebration of womanhood that pageants can bring if you look past the surface.
The Miss City of Lakes/ Miss West Metro pageant is February 16 and I couldn’t be more excited. I don’t know what will happen, but I’m going to trust the Lord will help me to do the best I can to show how beautiful every woman truly is.
