Inamin ni Catriona Gray, ang pambato ng Pilipinas sa darating na 2018 Miss Universe beauty pageant, na isa pa rin syang labandera dito sa Pilipinas.
“Ever since I’ve been totally self-sufficient. I’m very proud about that. Until now I still do my own laundry,” ayon kay Catriona, sa panayam sa “Tonight With Boy Abunda” sa ABS CBN kamakailan.
Bata pa lamang si Catriona ay naging independent na sya kahit na wala naman silang alitan ng kanyang mga magulang. Dagdag pa nya, s’ya ay isang Filipino-Australian.
“I would say Filipino-Australian because even though I was born in Australia, it’s not my choice but it was my parents choice. But it was my decision to come to the Philippines at age 18 just after I graduated from high school;
“It was like a self-discovery journey for me, my first step into figuring out who am I, what do I want to do with my life and just pushing myself out of the comfort zone and I chose to come here;
“All of your household chores are yours and I came over on my own money. So I was never helped by my parents. Not that they didn’t want me to but it was kinda I wanna prove to myself na kaya ko ito. I can do this!” dagdag pa ni Catriona.
Unang sumabak si Catriona sa modelling sa Pilipinas sa murang edad na 16. “During my school days, when I was still young, I would come here. And then I would do small modelling gigs. Yung first commercial ko dito I was 16 lang.”
Hindi rin inakala na Catriona na magiging beauty queen sya ngayon dahil nag-iiba iba ang pangarap nya habang lumalaki na sya.
“It actually changed a lot growing up. Actually no! But I did have my first, first pageant noon. I was 5 and 1999 I won Little Miss Philippines sa Sydney. I feel like my mom was nudging me in that direction eh,” ani Catriona.
Isiniwalat din ni Catriona ang kanyang mga preparasyon para sa nalalapit na Miss Universe beauty pageant na maaaring ganapin sa China sa unang pagkakataon.
“I am so excited! You know I intended to have an Easter break to just switch off and then reflect and absorb everything that happened. But I was so excited I keep thinking about Miss U na!’
“There’s different sections. First there’s pasarela, which is the new word for the art of walking. It involves the performance aspect of the pasarela, maybe a bit of dance, a bit of theater. As I’ve said to you before, it’s a performance for me. Then comes public speaking. I wanna learn from different people, from different walks of life ‘cause its nice eh. I’m representing the Philippines so I want to hear from everybody,” sabi ni Catriona. (Robert R. Requintina)
