"Always wear your invisible crown."

Every woman is confident, strong, and beautiul in her own unique way.

Posted on August 24, 2018

I mentioned in my previous post that I would share my pageant experience the following month, but I have been so busy that I have not had the time to blog in a few months. My sincere apologies for not keeping my promise.

But hey, better late than never, right? Anyway, competing in a pageant was definitely the most daring thing I have ever done. Not only was it completely out of my comfort zone, I never imagined myself as being part of the pageant world.

What was my biggest fear on pageant day? Hands down tripping on stage in front of a full audience! Before my Áo Dài and Evening Gown walk segments, my whole body was trembling and perspiring — good thing I showered myself with perfume to mask the pungent scent. LOL. To overcome my nervousness, I took a deep breath as I was about to take the stage and walked the runway as though I owned it. Did I trip? Thank god I didn't! After the show, a few attendees asked if I had any prior experience with runway walking, and the answer is "No, I do not." I simply invested extra hours to practice my catwalk because as I said earlier, my legit fear was stepping on my costume and tripping on stage. HAHA!

Also, my jaw was hurting so much from smiling all day. In addition to practicing our walk and dance in preparation for pageant day, we also had to practice smiling to prevent having our RBF on stage since you never know who might be staring at you. It was really important that we do not look like we hate life! Who knew smiling — or rather, forcing a smile — for a few hours would be quite challenging. If you look closely at the photos, I got so tired from smiling that I looked like I had a botox gone wrong. ROFL! XD

On a more serious note, prior to joining the pageant, my main goal was to be more connected to my roots and culture. Not having been born and raised in Vietnam, I have always been distant from my own culture and heritage. As such, I firmly believed that Miss Vietnam of Northern California Intercollegiate (MVNCI) pageant will be a stepping stone to my future active participation in serving my Vietnamese community.

Upon being crowned Miss Congeniality and making court, not only am I more active in my community, I was able to achieve another special experience from MVNCI: sisterhood. It was truly a remarkable experience to be surrounded by such beautiful, compassionate, intelligent, talented, and kind women. Witnessing my pageant sisters' limitless potential instill in me the motivation to work as hard to achieve my goals and give back to the community.

On a closing note, I am genuinely grateful for everyone who has supported and believed in me through my pageant journey. Thank you all so very much! Below are a few of my favorite photos from pageant.

PC: ANDY NGUYEN

I hope you enjoyed my blog. Have a MEGA AWESOME day! 😎