I’m not really fond of watching beauty pageants. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m a girl, but watching ladies parade in bikinis and evening wear kind of bore me (heck, fashion shows bore me). The last time I probably took the time to watch a pageant (specifically the evening wear segment), was a few years back in college when I was scouting for a pretty gown to wear on a formal occasion a friend of mine was organizing. I had no plans of buying one, but my mom and my aunts knew of a couturier in Divisoria who can draw inspiration from designer gowns.

So what brought me to watch this year’s Ms. Universe pageant? Well… Let’s just say I was curious—very curious about Ms. USA’s little spectacle during the evening gown segment.

She fell on her ass at the start of parading her evening gown. But she fell with style. Her ass must have been aching bad (it looked quite painful on TV), but she took it in stride and just smiled as if nothing happened.

That’s the art of falling, baby!

It must have been very, very embarrassing. Imagine falling flat on your ass with the whole world watching. I may not find her that pretty (I was rooting for Ms. India—her beauty was exotic), but I really do admire her guts. Pardon the pun, but I think Ms. USA will be one of my “gracefully falling” idols for the time being (well, until I see someone fall better than she did). And no, I’m not being sarcastic—I’ve gotten more than my share of falling myself. So yeah, she’s sincerely on my “graceful fallers” pedestal now.

I think my husband will attest to that fact; it’s not unusual for me to trip or fall on my ass. If you heard us talking on our seats in iBlog3, you’d know that he was repeatedly whispering (actually, he was begging) for me to be careful when going up the stage before my talk. Thank goodness I wasn’t wearing heels—because I probably would have tripped. You can just imagine how hard I was concentrating not to trip on my one and a half inch heels (yeah, yeah, I know, one and a half inch heels aren’t exactly high) during the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards Night—although I think I did grab Abe’s or Jomar’s arm to keep me steady once or twice that evening hehe.

But the thing is, I don’t only trip on heels. I can trip even while wearing flats, rubber shoes, slippers—heck, I could trip even wearing no footwear at all. Sometimes I really wonder if something is wrong with my feet.

Do you think maybe it’s because I’m flat-footed? I don’t really know, but a friend (who apparently has the same tripping problem that I have) said it’s probably because of that—she’s flat-footed herself, and that is probably the only physiological thing we had in common.

Who knows? Maybe Ms. USA was flat-footed too 😛 Or maybe because the floor was just slippery. But it wasn’t the reason behind her fall that I found admirable—it was how she handled the fall.

Falling, slipping, and tripping all over the place more frequently than normal, I’ve been so used to the embarrassment that came after that it’s already my instinct to laugh at myself (Marc and I even have a grading system of 1 to 10 for my falls). But Ms. USA made it seem like nothing happened. And that’s hard, because something did happen.

Maybe it was just a little stunt to gain everyone’s attention, but who cares. What she did took guts. The contestant (sorry, I forgot where she’s from) with the bald hairdo (or rather, no-hairdo), probably stood out as more gutsy to some. But for me, it’s Ms. USA. Hers was more than a fashion statement. It was a testament to having poise even after slipping and falling on your ass.

Here’s to you, Ms. USA!