Why Pageants Became the Love of My Life: A Celebration of Education
PRIMARY RESOURCE: People are a valuable resource. Wherever you are, look next to you and see greatness and opportunity and the potential for learning
For most people, pageants are synonymous with everything superficial, superfluous and shallow. I could not disagree more. Not only do I think there's a great deal to be learnt through watching them, but also from being interested in them. I also think when they are done right it could be educational on so many different levels for an audience, for competitors and for people involved. But that's only when they are done right and sadly, I would say, that with one or two exceptions, most organizations do it wrong.
One of the biggest things I take issue with is that most pageants these days brand themselves as empowerment platforms. For people like me who know a lot and who understand every part of the business, I know that it is a bold but empty branding trick. This tactic is merely for wider acceptance, relevance and, most of all, commercial gain. That does not mean that I don't think empowerment can happen - it's just that there are (and excuse me for not laying all my ideas and knowledge on the table - I am tired of it being used without due credit) some very important key elements missing. In other words, empty words to look good but when you actually look deeper, you will see there's nothing. It never stopped me from trying though. Even if it meant eventually feeling disempowered in the end. Because, you see, I am so "stubborn" that I can regenerate power... sometimes it takes a bit longer but I know I will get there in the end.
You might still think: 'this fool is crazy and he doesn't know what he is talking about'... but if you really think about it away from the glitter, glamorous dresses, gimmicky photoshoots and overly generous layers of makeup, there is a lot to learn. So, my argument is and will always be that one of the reasons why pageants became the love of my life is that I am a lifelong learner and I aspire to educate others. I am a qualified teacher after all.
I love pageants because I have learned so much from them and will probably hopefully continue to do so. to illustrate my point, I will list a few components of my pageant education:
GEOGRAPHY: By the time I went to high school, I knew more about countries large and small than any other kid (and sometimes adults) I knew at the time. Seeing a stage full of "countries" made me curious and spent countless hours on my rotating globe locating the countries, studying their capitals and neighbouring countries. So naming the capital city of a country was just as easy as knowing the answers of my times tables.
HISTORY AND CULTURE: Thanks to pageantry, I have learned so much about the history of the world and the intricacies of culture - either from a distance or the last few years in person. I have learned about the world and how there still so many challenges that have been there for decades and that remain unshifted, so many unconscious and subconscious biases that have been ingrained into people's way of thinking. Best of all, I have grown to understand on a much, much deeper level how much more similar than different we really are and that's the only thing about us that can ever truly transcend borders.
INVESTIGATION: Oh I learned to be quite the investigator from a very early age. Remember, I came from the era of landlines, fax machines and libraries. To learn the intricacies of a very niche industry, I had to investigate in creative ways. Books were simply not going to cut it. By the time I was in my mid teens, I already had the phone numbers of the whose who of the industry and I could hold my own finding out information and often breaking news about this industry to seasoned journalists. Love makes us do crazy but fascinating things. So when the Internet and now AI came along, I already had a pretty cool skillset that I still prefer to use to keep my brain fresh.
WRITING: When you are interested, or in my case highly interested, in something, you learn that you can pretty much do anything if it's driven by passion. In my late primary school and high school years, I learned how to write business letters (faxes) - not always that professionally - and also press releases. There was no greater thrill than seeing my stories being picked up and printed in regional or national daily or weekly newspapers. It didn't matter that my name was not in or on the article, it was the thrill of knowing that I was part of getting a story about "my love" out there. Blogging followed eventually and even now, I do enjoy writing about all the wonderful things - even with the knowledge that no one might read it or be interested in it. It's not about praise or performance; it's about the process, the product and your motive for doing it.
- “It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom. - This is so true. The Little Prince might be a children's book but it is a book I often refer to when I talk about life... and I also only discovered it thanks to Miss World 1993 (final answer of Miss Philippines!)
EVENT PLANNING: Pageants led me on a path of learning how to come up with ideas, conceptualise them, put them on paper, alter them, reinvent them, execute them and reflect on the process. I was at school until 2pm or 4pm most days but "the office in my brain" was open almost every day all day long. So over the years, it helped me with organising concerts, market days, fun days, pageants and fundraisers. Cringe fact: Besides the fact that I "staged" two pageants before the age of 13, I planned and organized a treasure hunt/fancy dress inspired by national costumes of the world 13th birthday party. Gosh - I could just keep going about the things I have done over the years that has been pretty out of the box.
TECHNOLOGY: I am not going to say that I am an expert - people of my age would often tell you we can't because we were not brought up with current technology like the current generation. And that is a generational excuse/disclaimer. The truth is that we can naturally adapt if we are willing to learn and we remain open-minded. So when YouTube (and now AI - which I often try to prove wrong by asking it questions that it gets wrong hahaha) came along, it just became so much simpler to do anything from building a blog (and I don't mean the simple version I have - I mean like really attempting to construct it by yourself), editing videos to more complex ways of changing perceptions through images and stories. And I still only consider myself to be at the tip of the iceberg. That's exciting!
CREATIVITY: The creative brain is a restless brain, it's a busy brain and it's a brain that never stops. I do believe that creativity is an innate talent for some but in most cases it is a skill - a very valuable one. And it's also a craft because there's so much higher level brain activity that you practice. I can literally see something simple and have hundreds of ideas pop in to my brain, which must then be evaluated and refined, recycled or deleted... it's a process... it's exhausting... but it's beautiful. When I don't create, life feels a bit empty. It's a blessing and it's a burden... mostly a blessing. And the most beautiful thing is, I have learned to only share a small amount of ideas because of how they were used. There is still a vast reservoir of them left and I will use them or keep them. It's all up to how and when/who I trust to use them (for). At the same time, I love collaborating with creatives, I love learning from them and I also love telling them when I love their ideas and I like it when they like my ideas. There's some so fulfilling about it all.
PEOPLE: People have always been fascinating. I am not a people's person. I am naturally shy and I often feel very uneasy when I am surrounded by many people. Maybe it's because I have learned too much about people. But mostly because I have such a huge appreciation for life and that every person that you encounter is literally some sort of vast, untapped resource (like an encyclopaedia on legs) and I have so much respect for it that when you are surrounded by so much knowledge and power, you kind of get flustered. But it's actually so darn beautiful and special. I have learned to observe, analyse, interpret, predict and predetermine possible outcomes or dangers or opportunities. My accuracy rate is pretty good. That's also why it's so easy for me to tell people when I was wrong, when they surprised me, when they impressed me and what I find unique and beautiful about them. The best thing I have done in my life is to try and understand us (including myself)!
I could write a few books about this topic. I could talk about it for hours. But for everything who says something is not valuable or superficial or even stupid, you should know that for someone out there, it is quite the opposite. That's the true beauty and power of being part of our world.
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