Q&A: 2018 Miss Stanton Contestant #5 Mary Mechelle Gary
MARIA DYRO AND ALLISON SIRAGUSA | FEB. 22, 2018 | Q&A
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — With the Miss Stanton Pageant around the corner, the pressure is on for all the young women who are participating to represent Stanton. To understand their hopes for the pageant and what they have taken away from it, Devil’s Advocate interviewed them and got their side of the story.
Devil's Advocate: What is your Miss Stanton platform?
MARY MECHELLE GARY: I don’t belong to an exact program or anything, but I do support a lot of causes. Like, I’m very much against animal cruelty. I believe that we should talk about Asian issues more because I’m Asian and I feel like we don’t get enough representation in the media. It’s something that people acknowledge but they don’t really absorb and do anything about.
DA: What does the Miss Stanton title mean to you?
MMG: I love Stanton, and coming to Stanton has changed me a lot. It’s helped me realize who I am and it’s brought me to a new place that I wasn’t happy with before. It means a lot to me to be able to represent my school and to help new people who come to Stanton.
DA: Why did you decide to run?
MMG: Over the summer, because I knew that you could run for Miss Stanton in your junior year, I was thinking about it, but I wasn’t really sure. When I mentioned it to my friends, they were like ‘yeah, you should do it, it’ll be fun’, so I decided to. One of the main reasons I did was because I wasn’t very happy with who I was before my junior year or around my sophomore year. Once I figured out who I was, I learned to love myself, so I decided to do it this year.
DA: How do you respond to the negative connotation around beauty pageants? What would you have to say to those people?
MMG: People say there’s this connotation around beauty pageants, but I feel like beauty pageants, despite the name, are about more than just beauty. Beauty pageants give you an opportunity learn more about yourself, because it puts you through a lot of trials. Miss Stanton or beauty pageants in general, they give you a platform to talk about things that you like and the things that you want to discuss with the world. In our speeches we get to talk about something that we genuinely think should be spread. It gives you the opportunity to learn more about yourself. You get to dive deep and explore your talents, and you make a lot of friends.
DA: If you are chosen [to win] the beauty pageant, how are you going to make a difference?
MMG: After you win Miss Stanton, you get to represent Stanton for a bunch of different things. Once I win, because you get to help with the School Choice Expo, I just want to help kids come to Stanton and see [Stanton] as a place that will help them grow academically and personally. I want to represent Stanton with pride.
DA: Overall, how much time have you dedicated to the pageant?
MMG: So much time. It was a long time. I don’t have an exact number, but there were days where I spent hours practicing my piece for my talent, and hours writing my speech, plus all the time we spend rehearsing with the other girls.
DA: What is your talent?
MMG: I play guitar. I am playing a song called ‘A River Flows In You’ by Yiruma, a Japanese composer.
DA: What is the best thing about Stanton?
MMG: I first came to Stanton from Darnell. At Darnell the high school doesn’t have nearly as many opportunities as Stanton does. I’d always wanted to go to Stanton because that’s just what you do when you go to Darnell for middle school. But the reason I came to Stanton was because there were so many opportunities and there are so many electives you can explore and you can find out so much more about yourself. What kept me here is that the student population is so amazing. Everyone is diverse and has their own opinion. They have something to represent and something to talk about. I think that’s really cool and it is something I take pride in.
DA: Who is your biggest supporter?
MMG: My mom. My mom, when I first came to her about doing the pageant was like ‘yeah you should do it, it’d be great’, and as time went on I realized that she was probably more passionate about this pageant than I was. Not in a “Toddlers and Tiaras” way, but in a “go out there and do something” way. She’s given me a lot of support and whenever I feel like I can’t do this she reassures me that it’s going to be fine.
DA: How has the pageant affected you?
MMG: [Miss Stanton] made me realize that I wasn’t as good at putting myself out there as I thought I was. Doing Miss Stanton has really pushed me to go out there and present myself as someone not scared of criticism or having everyone watch me. It’s helped with my time management. It’s taken up a lot of time and I’ve had to learn how to work around it.
DA: What is your favorite school subject?
MMG: Right now, it is probably film. I love going to film. At first I wasn’t a very big film person, but coming to film has made me learn about all the classic films that everyone talks about. It’s kind of pretentious, but it makes me feel educated, and it’s just a really cool class.