The Hottie & The Nottie

It seems that my former peers are wistful for the past, posting a collage of photos (circa 1996-1999) to various online networking sites. In the few pictures I come across of myself, I can't help but notice how ...NOT very pretty I was, for lack of a better word. (which totally explains my absence of a boyfriend during those years) Of course, I thought I was a hottie. As a former beauty pageant contestant (notice, I said contestant, not winner) how could I not be? As I was looking through the posting with my friend Slim, he nonchalantly blurted out, "I can see how you didn't win your beauty pageants, back then." Hmmm....did he just call me ugly?! I know I was thinking it, but to hear my suspicions confirmed from someone else... Of course, he covered himself with the expected, "You look soooo much hotter now." (How else would someone follow up after a statement like that, exactly?)

In my own wistfulness for the past, I've been toying around in my head the idea of giving it another go at beauty pageants, and after learning of my newly graduated status from Nottie to Hottie, why the heck not?! Just kidding. I honestly don't think I've change all that much, to tell the truth. I have the same dark boring eyes, set into an ovular head, with high cheek bones...Oh!...my hair is a little longer, I've lost a bit of weight, and I've discovered how to use fashion to my advantage. Other than that (hottie or nottie) I'm still Miraya. I think I will enter that pageant, though. After all, I couldn't have been that bad. Nottie that I once was, I still placed in the top 10 every time.