Sama­ki Fe­li­cian

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Ig­nor­ing all the naysay­ers, Jenelle Thongs, who rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed Miss Uni­verse pageant, says she is filled with joy as her dream has come true.

Thongs, 32, copped the Miss Con­ge­nial­i­ty award at one of the most pres­ti­gious beau­ty com­pe­ti­tions ever. This award is giv­en to the con­tes­tant who is seen as friend­ly, kind-heart­ed, and ap­proach­able.

Af­ter par­tic­i­pat­ing in the beau­ty com­pe­ti­tion, which took place in Mex­i­co on No­vem­ber 16, Thongs, in a post on the of­fi­cial Miss Trinidad and To­ba­go Face­book page yes­ter­day, said, “I did it; I stood on this stage to rep­re­sent my coun­try. Words may fail my grat­i­tude, so my ac­tions must speak loud­er as I con­tin­ue my tenure,” she said.

She ex­pressed her grat­i­tude to all the peo­ple who jour­neyed with her and gave a heart­felt mes­sage on what she is hop­ing to do now since her dream has been achieved.

“What’s next when you’ve had a dream so big? My loves, you dream big­ger. Trust me when I say big­ger and bet­ter is com­ing be­cause of what we as a coun­try were able to do, and that’s left an un­for­get­table mark here in Mex­i­co and all over the uni­verse and, most im­por­tant­ly, in the hearts of those who need­ed a re­minder that they are in fact that girl or that guy.”

Thongs is sched­uled to re­turn home this morn­ing.

Thongs’ oth­er ac­co­lades through­out her ca­reer and life con­sist of be­ing the for­mer Miss Supra­na­tion­al T&T and hav­ing eight oth­er pageant ti­tles, in­clud­ing Miss Car­ni­val T&T 2013, Miss Beau­ty T&T 2016, and Miss Her­itage In­ter­na­tion­al 2016. She al­so has a BSc in bi­ol­o­gy from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and is a man­ag­er at a den­tal clin­ic. Thongs was re­cent­ly mar­ried.

Last week, crit­ics wad­ed in­to Thongs for her ap­pear­ance and wardrobe at the pageant. Thongs has faced a bar­rage of so­cial me­dia crit­i­cism, with some ques­tion­ing her choice of at­tire, oth­ers her ap­pear­ance, and some crit­i­cal of her age. But she re­spond­ed, “I’m sor­ry to dis­ap­point the haters, but I am that girl!”

Vic­to­ria Kjær Theil­vig of Den­mark emerged as the win­ner of the Miss Uni­verse pageant.