What I'm looking forward to

What really caught my attention about this pageant , and what really encouraged me to join was not only what the organisation represented but also what I stood to gain from it. When I first met Fidelia (one of our organisers), she seemed so passionate about Miss AfriCanada, in fact she was trying to get my friend and I to participate as contestants. From what I remember, she came all the way to York University to see if she could find new faces for that summer's competition (summer 2011). She saw my friend and I studying at the library, and approached us randomly to speak about the pageant in hopes of persuading us, because we apparently looked African.

Well, needless to say I was very persuaded, and super excited that such a thing existed. An African heritage pageant? Woah...
Something that had very little to do with beauty, and that focused more on your abilities as a contestant to represent your culture. I thought it was cool. But what really won me over was the chance you stood to not only win a trip back to your home country (in Africa), but also the support you would get in developping an initiative. I mean since my field of study is International Development Studies (BA, Hons -holla :)) I thought this would be the perfect thing to involve myself with, because it coincided so much with who I am as a person overall. So, yeah, I joined (not that very summer, but this following one).

And it was honestly the best decision I made all summer, because look at how things turned out :)
Now that I'm Miss AfriCanada 2012, here are all the things I super-duper look forward to:

• Working with the awesome team, and getting to bother Zainab frequently
• Meeting and learning from wonderful people, who are impacting the African Canadian community positively, at the events I'll attend -I've already met quite a few
• Doing a lot of community work, hopefully more with women (my platform), which I'll now have the responsibility of doing as a queeeeen!
• And last but not least, getting to return to the CONGO!! Whoo! That's going to be such an amazing, life-altering experience; I can't wait

 I hope that overall, throughout this new journey I'm embarking, I remain free of scratches, bruises, and bumps along the road. And lastly, I hope I'll be able to affect the people with whom I interact as much as they'll affect me.

Peace! My first official appearence is tomorrow :)