Miss Samoa writes: My Hope

By Samoa Observer 17 January 2016, 12:00AM

An old man was walking on the beach early in the morning. A big storm had passed and he found the vast shore littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, beached and dying. 

And he saw a young man picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean.

“What difference does it make?” the old man asked, “There’s too many of them.”

The young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. “Made a difference to that one” he said.

As the Christmas trees are packed away and the end of another countdown to the New Year has passed, now is the time to draw level on the year that was 2015 and envisage the year that will be 2016. 

We reflect on a year of blessings and challenges; the consequent lessons, a means to an end in our continuous growth as human beings, and we give all glory and honour to God for yet another year of increase.

For myself, this past year of being the first Miss Samoa Australia to be crowned Miss Samoa, and attaining a humbling result of first runner up in the Miss Pacific Islands pageant has provided nothing less than extraordinary. 

To be Miss Samoa is both “an honour and responsibility”; the honour coming with being able to witness everything our Beautiful Samoa has to offer, and the responsibility in remembering to seize the opportunity to give back.

So although a bit delayed (though still on schedule according to island time), it is on this note that I begin. 

I say thank you to our Heavenly Father for His favour, thank you to the Samoa Tourism Authority, Manaia Events and associated sponsors that continue to make all of this possible, and thank you to the people who make a difference to it all, you. 

Mo lo’u atunu’u pele o Samoa, fa’afetai mo talosaga ma le lagolago mai, faapea lo outou agalelei ma lo outou titi fai tama. Ua fa’amalosia a’u ona ole tou alolofa ma le lagolago malosi mai. Ia tatou tumau pea i ala ole Ali’i, aua o ia lava lo tatou fa’amoemoe. 

With the New Year comes new found hope, and I encourage us all to continue to fight the good fight and strive towards the goal to which we have been called heavenward.   

I will never forget you who have contributed to this journey thus far, and my hope rests in that when the time comes for me to pass on the crown, big or small, I would’ve made a difference myself.

By Samoa Observer 17 January 2016, 12:00AM
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