Life is all about what you make of it. One can find out what one wants and get anything even if it gets tough. There are many things in life that one cannot figure out, but that simply does not matter.
Esther Jackson, a 19-year-old Nigerian expatriate, believes that one can get what one wants in life through dedication and hard, work no matter what difficulties are hardships we face in life.
Esther, who is fast establishing her feet as a model in Qatar, has been selected to participate in the Miss Global pageant that is going to be held in Mexico in January. Miss Global is an annual global beauty pageant for single women ages 18–35, the widest age range in pageantry. Contestants compete for the crown of Miss Global on an international platform. In February 2019, Miss Global held its 7th anniversary pageant in Manila, Philippines, which attracted more than 60 female contestants from 60 countries around the world.
In a recent talk with Community, the young model, who is facing financial impediments to make it to Mexico next year, spoke about her dreams of representing both Nigeria and Qatar at the international platform.
Esther, who has been living in Qatar for 11 years with her parents, is a student of business management. “My father is an engineer and my mother is a teacher. I have a younger sister and a younger brother. I will soon be attending a university programme for business management. I am going to represent my countries Nigeria and Qatar in the contest. Qatar is my second home. I will be more than happy to represent Qatar. I think I am the first Nigerian girl to take part in the beauty pageant from Qatar.”
The promising model is excited to represent her country at the contest. “It will provide me the opportunity to highlight what my country is capable of. Basically, the people will learn about my country. Girls from different countries will contest for the crown. I was accepted by the organisers as they said that I would be a very good candidate for Nigeria after they went through my profile. This is going to be my first beauty contest.”
Esther finds the Miss Global contest different from other international beauty pageants. “It is in the same concept. But, the Miss Global is different because they just do not want to know if you are beautiful and intelligent, they want to know your heart. They want to know you as a person from a specific country.”
The Nigeria girl always wanted to be in the line of beauty and fashion. “My motivation behind attending the contest is not just to show how beautiful I am. The contest is all about you as a person – how you are able to function as a person and help others. My biggest motivation has been to be able to help other people.”
She believes that being a part of the beauty contest will help her in knowing herself. “It will definitely help me figure out some missing parts of myself. I am growing and I still need to learn. I still need to explore different things. Being a young contestant, I think the pageant will help me know what I need to do to achieve certain things.”
Her participation, Esther thinks, will support Nigeria and Qatar in many ways. “I just want to show my fellow country people that you can find out what you want. You can do anything, even if life is tough for you. Of course, life is not a perfect thing. I just want to show the people that if you want to get something, you will be there. Even if you fail, it does not matter. Failure is just a push for you towards further gains. I want to show that things might be hard in Nigeria but you can still achieve anything. Life is all about the way you make it.”
The model also praised Victor Ikoli, President of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation, saying her community had really pushed and helped her.
Talking to Community, Victor said: “She has great talent. She has passion for modelling. The community is ready to extend every kind of support she needs.
“Indirectly, she is an ambassador of Qatar as well. We call on corporate organisations to come forward and support such kind of young talented people.”
PASSIONATE: Nineteen-year-old Nigerian expatriate EstherJackson has been selected to participate in the Miss Global pageant that is going to be held in Mexico in January. Photo by Jayan Orma
