Breakfast with Pierre Anther

With the Miss Cebu 2013 coronation night only a few days away, beauty pageant watchers are, of course, giving the contestants the once-over, and wondering who would be next to represent Cebu in the next round of beauty tilts-- be it national or international.

However, for us, it’s a great time to recall that awesome breakfast morning with reigning Miss Cebu titlist, and fellow iSTORYAn herself, Ms Pierre Anther Infante.

Let’s take a trip down beauty pageant memory lane when Pierre just had her first day as Miss Cebu 2012.

Pierre and Music!
Prior to becoming Miss Cebu 2012, Pierre was DJ Leila of Monster Radio. We talked first about her being a DJ and about music.

For Pierre, she finds it worthwhile doing something you love for fun. Being a DJ gives her a chance to brighten people’s day just by playing their favourite music. It also means that you have to like every bit of music genre so that you can showcase and cater to different musical tastes.

Pop and alternative music lifts her mood, basically because she was influenced by her brothers on their knack for alternative rock during the 90’s. Those songs, for her, felt like each is telling a story. One of the best musical generations would of course be the 90’s. Music in the current generation however, as per Pierre, is mostly about partying and she felt like society is permissive in the kind of behaviour that this type of music is insinuating.

Educational Background
We then talked about Pierre’s educational background. She attended elementary in a public school in Pardo then high school in Holy Rosary School, still in Pardo. During college, she first took nursing in Cebu Doctors’ University but had to stop after 3 semesters, saying, she realized it wasn’t meant for her. It was an unusual experience for her because when she is into something, she would usually finish it. However, shifting to Mass Communications in Southwestern University wasn’t a bad decision at all because her choice has worked out well for her—well, what can you say? It eventually led her to Miss Cebu after all.

Childhood
In a family of 6 with only 2 girls, you can expect a “bugay” and outdoorsy type of childhood. At first she thought she didn’t feel like she was a girl until she was in high school. She was laid back, not the dressy type, more of like a tshirt/jeans kind of girl. She’d like to dress simply and comfortably.

Hobbies
Technologically inclined, she likes browsing the web most of the time. During her free time, she likes to spend it with her friends, sing, read. She likes Psychology books, especially those that talk about relationships, living and how the human behaviour works. Scott Peck and Leo Buscaglia are two of her favourite authors.

A lazy day for Pierre Anther means waking up until noon, just be at home, grab a book and read. She considers herself a home buddy. Nowadays and with her busy schedule, lazy days are becoming less frequent though.

Beauty Secrets
You’d be surprised to know that our reigning Miss Cebu does not believe in cosmetics or any beauty secrets. Considering herself laidback and “lazy” when it comes to beauty routines, she says it’s best to just clean everything up with water before going to bed. She does not consider herself fuzzy when it comes to that.

What Catches Pierre’s Attention?
Personality. There are some pretty and handsome people but they are just that, they have no aura. It’s always the personality that catches her attention.

Passion
What fuels Pierre’s passion is the thought of making people happy. Being a DJ, her time slot was 6-9pm, so it’s a happy thought for her that people end their day with her. She also likes to keep herself busy, not liking dull moments. As a researcher, she wants to keep her hands full with anything. She said that she wants to try everything at least once.

Speaking of trying everything at once, during this interview, Pierre wasn’t able to do zip-lining yet as she has this fear of heights. She wasn’t adventurous at all in physical activities. But her Miss Cebu experience urged her to try everything new like crossing rivers, swimming,etc. She also planned to visit the whale sharks in Oslob and do fun things around Cebu with the Miss Cebu 2012 girls.

Food
Cebu has a myriad of food so beauty queen or not, you just can’t escape putting on your fave list lechon! For Pierre, Cebu’s lechon is a symbol of family and togetherness. Most major gatherings require lechon and most of her memories are associated with bondings with family over food and lechon. Of course, she mentioned dried fish in Bantayan especially the buwad pinikas; tocino and tortang argao.

Relationships
Before you guys start to line up, I must warn you that as of this interview, our Miss Cebu has a very supportive boyfriend who’s from Manila and is planning to move here in Cebu. Pierre humorously said that she will turn him into Cebuano—what a challenge, Pierre! When we talked, she mentioned that the relationship is pretty serious. Once you get into a relationship, you always hope and work for it like he’s the one or else what’s the point, right?

She finds her boyfriend consistent and very understanding. She admits that she’s difficult at times but he’s very patient with her. Upon knowing about her intent to join Miss Cebu, he was very supportive of her personal development and when she won, his first words were, “I told you!”.

Of course, she didn’t share that winning hope at first when she joined because her goal was just to make it a good memory regardless of the outcome. But when she won, it was added bonus on her part.

For her, the ideal age to get married is 28 or something of that age bracket. She wants to be a free woman first, enjoying every aspect of life before committing to a lifetime. Before getting married, she wants to be financially stable and be able to help her family.

Cebu and Being a Cebuana
By roots and by heart, Pierre considers herself a full-blown Cebuana. She was born and raised here and most of her memories are here in Cebu.
The deepest Cebuano word that she knows is banggiitan. It means elite. After asking that question, she feels that she would like to make it one of her advocacies, that most will appreciate Bisaya. Speaking fluent Cebuano is very difficult and an art at the same time. She finds it poetic and elegant.

As a Cebuana, she appreciates and loves Cebu as her hometown. It has lots of spots to go to. She says that Cebu is very promising and accessible, it being a good combination of pleasure and business. In the future she hopes that Cebu will provide a lot of opportunities to its locals, considering we have a lot of potential. She said that we have everything here to be competitive as a city, we just have to find a niche, hone that and market it. Cebuanos are very talented and we should bank on cultural richness and be proud of our heritage.

As per her (and I concur and admire her for this), we have to stand up together by knowing our identity and make it a distinct mark rather than blend in with other. We have to be proud that we are Cebuanos.
One of the topmost priorities that the government and the people should look into is the drainage system. It’s as simple as having good discipline in segregating waste.

The girls and her have a lot of advocacies that they were very enthusiastic to start at, including the enhancement of local talents, tourism and cultural awareness.

The Miss Cebu Experience (a must-read for contestants!)
It all started with her parents who wanted her to join Miss Cebu. It’s very amusing to note that her father himself signed her up and went with her on auditions. Her Miss Cebu experience made her a better person. She was hesitant with pageants before, thinking they are just shallow parades of beauty. But with Miss Cebu, she feels she’s in for a purpose and every girl should aspire to be one.

From trying to make her parents happy, joining Miss Cebu has gone beyond the personal game. Her mind set changed to that of making a difference and touching as many lives as possible.

There’s no major preparation on her part and maybe the contestants should also read this: As per Pierre, you just have to have the proper mind set and be emotionally prepared as well. Try to experience Miss Cebu moment by moment, enjoy it, and have fun with the girls.

From being laidback and bugay, Pierre has now become more feminine (more because she has to and it’s part of her responsibility). She has become more sociable, and more visible. Emotionally, she has more confidence now because she and the girls were given lots of training and she learned a lot from it.

About being an iSTORYAn
There were cheers and rounds of applause when she mentioned iSTORYA.NET as her favourite online site. We were ecstatic as well when she mentioned us. She didn’t expect that question but she’s happy that they asked. All of the DJ’s she knows are iSTORYAns. She believes that if you really are Cebuano, you should know what iSTORYA.NET is!

She became an iSTORYAn sometime 2010, at about the same time that she became a DJ. With iSTORYA.NET, you get good vibes especially with the varied topics. Most are funny and informative. She considers herself a reader, browsing through comments and just laugh at it, even the shallow ones (like nganong bahog tiil, etc. haha) . She likes the Humor forums and the Career forums as well.

The articles and threads that iSTORYA.NET posts are very useful especially in her preparation. Everything that you want to know about Cebu is in iSTORYA.NET. Search what is the best lechon, dried mango, etc and iSTORYA gives you the answers.

Lastly, we asked her what her username is but she wants to keep it confidential, as she is more of a reader and not participate as much with comments.

But hey, bear in mind, iSTORYAns are abound with beauties—beauty queen or not! You just don’t know who’s lurking! So reach out, you just don't know who your online friends might be! You may never know, you're friends with Miss Cebu!

So, that was our conversation over breakfast with iSTORYAn and Miss Cebu, Pierre Anther Infante. She’s down-to-earth and so full of charm. We are looking forward to who would be next to be crowned—fingers crossed she’d be another iSTORYAn. All the best, ladies!

For more details about the Miss Cebu 2013 Coronation night, please visit this article: https://www.istorya.net/forums/conten...ion-night-357/