Having said that, once you find a gem of a friend, make sure the friendship is for keeps. Like ate, Annica really is a beautiful person in & out -that’s a very rare quality. In the very short span that we’ve talked, I saw someone so selfless & without a mean bone in her body. You can’t help but be happy for her accomplishment. Beauty+Brains+Heart? That’s rare.

2) Not all friends are supportive. We have some old, old friends that go waaaaay back whom we thought would be our staunchest supporters. But when we needed them the most, they failed us. On the other hand, new friends & people who didn’t even know us that well came to our rescue & fought the battle with us. Some whom we never even imagined would help us did so. Life really is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you will get! ;P

It’s better not to expect. For us Filipinos, it’s Tit for Tat. We don’t take utang na loob lightly. So when you give or do something nice for someone, don’t expect anything in return so you don’t get disappointed. It’s different strokes for different folks. Not everyone can, or is willing, to make grand gestures. Deal with it & move on.

3) All that glitters REALLY is GOLD! ;)) Ate didn’t want anything colorful, sparkly & pompous. She wanted everything simple & elegant -no skin. No to danglings & big earrings. No to sequins & headdresses. No to bright colors. It’s good that I insisted on some glitters, earrings & headdress. Otherwise she would have been roadkill in the pageant! The more glitter, the more attention. Now, I know -understated elegance is definitely not for pageants!

4) P.R. really works! For the whole week that I’ve been shadowing ate, I made some friends of my own to her kahihiyan haha. On the pageant day, while other parents were relegated to the sides or the back. I had front row, middle aisle seats! m/ And I felt like a queen with everyone asking if I was alright & if I needed anything at all to let them know. I was a QUEEN! ;)) Smiling at everyone goes a loooooong way -besides, happy girls ARE the prettiest! <3

5) All or nothing. When you do decide to join something, you either give it your 101% or don’t plunge in at all. I scrimped on the budget for the headdress. Ate suffered the consequence. The Theme Wear (30%), Formal Wear (30%), and Casual Wear (30%) had a big impact on the result of the pageant.

Since I already paid so much for ate’s gown, a few more bucks would have made a HUGE difference on the result of the Theme Wear had I pushed through with the original headdress design! :((

Then, we already went all the way to tutuban for the hair extensions. Because I scrimped, we didn’t get to use the hair extensions we bought because I only got 2 strands (2k) instead of the whole pack of 6 (5k)! Now that’s really money down the drain since ate didn’t even get to use it at all. I shouldn’t have held back for a few measly savings. For short, don’t be a cheapskate! ;P