Bow Valley High School beauty Khristel Cuesta ‘KC’ will be travelling to the Philippines after advancing in an international competition.
“It feels amazing when you’re already living your dream. I didn’t only prove to myself but also to anyone else that I am capable of doing something they could be proud of,” Cuesta explained over email correspondence with the Eagle.
The Filipina beauty first entered the Miss Pilipinas pageant last October after living in Canada for less than a year and was crowned as Miss Pilipina Canada on Oct. 9 in Calgary. The former title advanced Cuesta to the next step in the competition where she was recently crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas, meaning ‘Pearl of the Philippines.”
“I feel so blessed for God gave me the potential of joining beauty pageants and having the confidence to compete … (now) I will be joining Mutya ng Pilipinas which is an annual national beauty pageant in the Philippines. There, I will represent the Filipino community in Canada as Mutya ng Pilipinas Canada and continue to defend my title” Cuesta explained.
As one out of five siblings, Cuesta said she was the only one to “seriously” pursue pageants between her high-school studies and part-time job. While the road to beauty queen status got rough at times, the pageant winner said the hard work paid off.
“It was a challenging and hectic situation that time because I needed to prepare for my final exams and at the same time I got good news that it was confirmed that I would play one of the main characters in a theatre play by the Town of Cochrane. So it was really overwhelming (but) God is really good,” Cuesta said.
“My family and friends are so proud of me, especially my relatives in our country. Everyone is excited for my next journey (and) everyone can’t wait to see me compete in our country and take back the title here in Canada.”
The Bow Valley beauty queen will have a busy next couple of months as she prepares for the town’s theatre show and gets ready to graduate high school, all before the overseas competition in July.
“So far this will be the biggest and more prestigious competition I will join. I am so proud to be the Mutya ng Pilipinas Canada and I am aiming to have the title as the Mutya ng Pilipinas officially,” Cuesta said.
The mission statement of the competition is to have the pageant participants serve as “inspiration to youths, showing the beauty, talents and the virtues of a young Filipina.”
For more information go to mutyapilipinas.com.
