“He said we should no longer be in communication, no longer interact with each other…we should just sever ties, completely,” she said. “I was heartbroken.”
Hollancid and her best friend had been close for a year and shared a spiritual connection so strong she could not describe it.
“My walk with God would not be as close it is today if it weren’t for this man,” she said. “We clicked so perfectly on a spiritual level.”
Hollancid spent the rest of the afternoon in tears. That evening, as she lay on her bed, she felt God leading her to read the story of Joseph and his brothers.
“I read that story every day for the rest of that week and I felt that God was telling me: ‘I am going to elevate you. Through this pageant, I will propel you,’” she said.
As the pageant approaches, Hollancid feels nervous about her speech – an insecurity that has weighed her down for years.
When she moved to New York, the kids in her neighbourhood had teased her relentlessly about her accent whenever she was called upon to read in class. And because she sucked her tongue as a child, her front teeth protruded.
While she knows her mother, who passed away last year, meant well when she sent Hollancid away to protect her from what she perceived to be bad company, being separated from her siblings and friends with just two-days’ notice affected Hollancid immensely.
“When I left St. Lucia, I was a happy kid. But in New York, every time I would open my mouth to speak, kids would make fun of me,” Hollancid said. “It just really shut me down.”
With the love and support of her family, her closest friend Leslie Nicholas, committed supporter Donald Sibblies, and two mentors who have been paramount to her journey to self-love – Earnest Flowers and Patrice Bettison-Clark – Hollancid now knows that she is fearfully and wonderfully made, and believes she has everything it takes to win the crown.
“I don’t even know why they are doing this pageant,” she said. “But what I do know is this: For once in her life, Cindel was actually selected for something – something that I never thought, at my age, would happen.”
Hollancid is also making plans to become a certified life coach in the near future.
Vimbai E. is a content marketer, ghostwriter, and the founder of The Weight She Carries. With hundreds of articles and stories publishing online, in print and for broadcast, her love of language and storytelling shines through every piece of writing that bears her name.