My life as a beauty contest judge...

More than a year ago, one of my friends - who incidentally was also a client - asked me to be a preliminary judge for their image model search. It was one of the most surreal moments in my life as an adult. The feeling was a bit awkward, you sit there while all these girls preen and project in front of you. No matter how much the contestants say that a pageant isn't a meat market, hell, it sure does feel like one from where I was sitting. Heebie-jeebies aside, it was encouraging to see that some of the girls with pretty faces do have good heads on their toned shoulders. The prettiest ones were journalism students (always intelligent, i must say. hahaha), talented theater actresses, and involved in socio-civic activities. They could answer questions with candor and wit, and with a lot of sense. And then, there were these girls: GIRL 1: Judge: What's a typical day for you? Girl: Saturday *silence* Judge: Ok, what is it about Saturday that made you say that. Girl: Because Saturday is very typical... GIRL 2: Judge: What was the last good movie you saw? Girl: Passion of the Christ, po. Judge: Why do you think it's a good movie? Girl: Kasi po, I'm Catholic. And after ko po panoorin yon, mas maintindihan at naramdaman ko yung lahat ng suffering, lahat ng sacrifice, lahat po ng pinagdaanan ni Mama Mary. GIRL 3: Judge: What's your greatest achievement? Girl: Wala po. Judge: You don't have any achievements? Girl: Kung achievements po, meron naman. Like winning contests in school, being a part of our school's winning athletic team, being in the dean's list... pero achievements lang po yon. Yung "greatest achievement" wala pa po kasi mataas po ang pangarap ko. Judge: That's good. So ano yung pinapangarap mong maabot? What is it that will make you say: "Ito na ang greatest achievement ko." Girl: Ah, yung maging finalist po sa search na 'to. This was just a fraction of things we had to endure during the 4 hour plus judging. Imagine the headache we had after that. Good thing we were given neat goody bags for all the effort. Being a beauty contest judge was a surreal experience. But i wouldn't mind doing it all over again.