00:00This year kind of forced me to think about what really makes me happy.
00:04And I think I'm slowly learning the answer.
00:11You know, the thing I wish somebody told me was that
00:14after you win, you gotta work twice as hard to stay relevant.
00:18The peak is the win, and then the rain.
00:21And then after that, usually, like, you gotta work twice as hard
00:24to keep yourself up there, to keep yourself relevant and in the public eye.
00:29I don't do any, like, weird gimmicks to make myself, you know,
00:32to make people talk about me.
00:34But I continue with the work.
00:35So I still do, you know, activities like this where I get invited abroad.
00:39The work continues, basically.
00:42And yeah, I mean, this was my dream.
00:45And, you know, it's not difficult.
00:48If you love what you do, it's not difficult.
00:50I would like to have my own business.
00:53Right now, I am a brand ambassador and an endorser for so many brands
00:57back in the Philippines and also regional in Southeast Asia.
01:01But I don't have any of my own yet.
01:03But I've started already, a little bit.
01:05I have a milk tea business back home.
01:07I've also collaborated with a makeup line that's on sale here in Dubai, actually.
01:12It's called Tevian.
01:13So I've been trying my hand at entrepreneurship.
01:16I enjoy being in front of the camera and doing shoots and being glammed up.
01:20But I also wanna, like, learn how to do business.
01:23I wanna learn something new.
01:25I don't know if I'm gonna be an expert at it.
01:27I definitely did not go to school for it.
01:29I'm just learning through experience.
01:31But, you know, that's how it is.
01:33I wasn't a beauty queen right away.
01:35I failed a few times before I got there.
01:37So I know it's gonna be a rough ride if I wanna get into business.
01:41But it's something that I'm really interested in.
01:44I was there in Thailand when she won.
01:46I was actually, like, almost in the front row.
01:52It's so nice to see it from the audience point of view.
01:56Because I've been there as a contestant.
01:59I've been there as a judge.
02:00But it was my first time to be there as an audience member,
02:03where I'm literally there just to experience it.
02:06I don't have any responsibility to judge the girls,
02:09to write anything down, to be too critical.
02:12I'm just there to enjoy.
02:13And people would say to me before, like,
02:15oh, she's threatened because, you know,
02:19she doesn't want another Filipina from the Philippines to win.
02:22But once you're there, like, all of that goes out of the window
02:25because you just wanna raise the flag.
02:27You just want the Philippines to win.
02:29Everybody's so happy.
02:30How can you be the, like, the bitter one, right?
02:34Like, why would you wanna, like, ruin the party?
02:36I understand where they're coming from,
02:38especially if you don't know much about it,
02:40if you don't know what really goes on.
02:43Like, surface level, you only know that there's a contest on TV.
02:48They all look beautiful.
02:50Whoever is the best wins.
02:51But they don't really know what happens before that or after that.
02:55You only see the crowning nice moment during the show.
02:58But it's actually years of training
03:01before that girl gets to wear that sash on that stage.
03:05And these girls have a story to tell.
03:07They come from different walks of life.
03:09Some of them come from really humble beginnings.
03:12Each girl has a different story, and it's so interesting.
03:16Some come from professional careers.
03:18Some are lawyers.
03:19Some are doctors.
03:20Some come from the military.
03:22Some come from really broken families.
03:24Some come from conflicted areas.
03:28So, like, how?
03:29How do you get there?
03:32Coming, you know, going through all of these challenges.
03:34I'm really happy that pageants nowadays,
03:36especially Miss Universe, have more Q&A rounds.
03:39When, as before, there was only one question, and then that's it.
03:43But nowadays, there's so many interview questions
03:46because it's about getting to know the girl
03:48rather than picking the most beautiful one.
03:51So it's all about the whole package.
03:53It's really more than just a beauty contest now.
03:56Girls have a story to share, have a story to tell,
04:00have advocacies to push for,
04:03and try to find out what they also do after the ring
04:07because the work starts after the crown is put on their head.
04:10So what we see on TV is that a girl gets crowned,
04:13credits roll, and then that's it.
04:15You feel like, oh, yeah, she's done now.
04:17She goes home, and she's probably doing a modeling gig now.
04:20No.
04:21The work starts after the crown is placed on your head.
04:25And it's a responsibility because you can get replaced.
04:29There's so many people who want to be in your position.
04:31When I was training for Miss Universe or for Miss Philippines,
04:36we worked with so many different charities.
04:38So, of course, at the beginning, I didn't know much about it.
04:41I didn't know what I was doing.
04:42I didn't even know what advocacy I wanted to get involved in.
04:46I didn't know what I wanted to talk about, what I wanted to stand up for.
04:49But because I was exposed to so much of it,
04:51then I thought, wait a minute, I enjoy doing this and this,
04:55and these are the stuff that I really care about.
04:57So once you're exposed to it,
04:58and you kind of know which ones really resonate to you,
05:01it becomes easy.
05:03You gotta be able to connect to it on a personal level.
05:06Like for me, I have friends and lost friends because of HIV.
05:12And so it's close to my heart
05:15because it's not just something that I said during my final answer at Miss Universe.
05:19It's actually that something happened close to home.
05:23Or when I talk about mental health awareness,
05:26I've also gone through depression and anxiety myself,
05:31and people really close to me.
05:32So I relate to it.
05:34I have experiences.
05:36That's why I'm able to speak about it.
05:38It becomes easier when you have personal experiences.
05:41It's a nice feeling to know that I've helped out in my own way,
05:45in my little way.
05:46If I need to, I love doing repacking of relief goods.
05:50Like I just love being busy.
05:51I love being on the ground.
05:53You know, I love fundraising.
05:55I love raising awareness.
05:56I love speaking.
05:57So it's...
05:59And knowing that you're doing something good,
06:01you know, and you might change somebody's life,
06:04or at least help somebody.
06:05It's such a nice feeling.
06:07It makes me more proud to walk,
06:11to go home knowing that I've helped a family or somebody
06:16more than finishing a photo shoot.
06:18My New Year's resolution for 2021 is to
06:22not forget all the lessons that I learned this year.
06:25As much as we didn't like this year,
06:27I think it taught us so many lessons.
06:29Like not taking the little things for granted anymore,
06:33and going back to basics,
06:34and really just detaching yourself from distractions.
06:39I'm such a workaholic,
06:40and I've been working like every day straight.
06:43I didn't even know what a weekend was before.
06:46And so I realized I've been missing birthdays.
06:48I've been missing weddings.
06:49I've been missing real life experiences.
06:52And so years have passed after Miss Universe,
06:54and I barely have any real life experiences
06:57because I'm always at work.
06:58And then I realized that's not a way to live.
07:00I need to balance it.
07:03I need to have a balance.
07:04I need to spend more time with my loved ones,
07:06and spend more time with my family,
07:08do the things that make me happy,
07:10rather than just burying my mind or myself at work.
07:14So next year, I wanna,
07:17of course, I wanna continue all the projects
07:19that have been put on hold because of the pandemic.
07:22But I also wanna reconnect with people.
07:24I wanna reconnect with myself.
07:27And yeah, I feel like this year
07:32kind of forced me to think about
07:34what really makes me happy.
07:36And I think I'm slowly learning the answer.
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