So declared Rota’s Liberation queen 2010 candidate, Berlani Tayleen B. Apatang, 17.
“A little girl we once saw in elementary school reading a book may become the president of the United States when she grows up. One day, the little boy we saw riding a bicycle along the street may make sports history,” she said.
The youth should have courage in their undertakings, she added,
“Your island will always be your home and nobody can take that away from you. So go out there and be part of who you are and what you are!” she said.
Apatang, who is very active in sports, said she joined this year’s Liberation queen competition to “experience something new.”
She will vie with nine other candidates in the annual fundraising competition.
When her mother, Cecile O. Blas-Taimanao, discussed with her auntie her joining the Liberation queen competition, Apatang said she was shocked and nervous.
“I later told myself to just go for it and take a new path and try out this wonderful experience. I am proud of my island and I want to show my island that I am proud to be a part of them,” she said.
Apatang usually joins ball games and other sporting events.
For the Liberation pageant, her sponsors are her family and friends as well as the people and municipality of Rota.
“I love to show other people out there that I can do so much more than just being an ordinary average athletic Luta girl,” Apatang said.
Like the other candidates, she too aspires to win the crown. But win or lose, “I will always have a crown bigger than the physical one because I represented my island and tried my best.”
Her inspiration is her grandfather Thomas Toves Blas who is popularly known as “Elvis” or “James Brown. “
She said her grandfather can “bust a move, especially when he does his jitterbug” with her grandmother Fermina Ogo Blas.
“Ever since I was a little girl my grandfather would give me advice even though I was too young to comprehend it. But as I grew older he still gave me the same advice especially about education and respect,” Apatang said.
“I love my grandfather to death and I would like everyone to know that he has been my inspiration since I first saw his freckled round face and his dark monopoly mustache,” she added.
Apatang’s dream is to join the military.
She has already enlisted in the U.S. Army and will leave in August for her basic training.
Afterward, she will report to her duty station and pursue a four-year college course in criminal justice and/or physical education.
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