Ambassador Duty

Mum and dad saw an ad in the paper that OshKosh B'gosh was holding a model ambassador search for the brand. We both looked at Jakjak and smiled (more of an evil grin actually). While we had to buy our entry to the contest (you had to purchase a certain amount worth of OshKosh products), we figured it was just fair. Jakjak needed new shoes anyway (or so we kept telling ourselves), and that alone was already more than half of the required purchase. So we got him the shoes and told him all about the contest. There was a little bit of hesitation between the 3 of us then, but we thought, what the hell, let's just do it anyway.

We have always believed that Jakjak was photogenic. But since we are his parents, we thought that was just natural. I mean, no parent would dare say that their child isn't cute or adorable, right? So we have always just kept that between ourselves. While on the topic of photography, it's also best that people know how shy Jakjak is in front of the camera. Or so he says. What he always tells people, is not always what he is. To be honest, he is far from being shy. Well, at least not too shy to be a charming little prince.

What followed next were a few photo-shoots  After all, we did have to prepare him for modelling duty if needed. A few good shots here, a few good shots there, and more hours of frustration than was required and we finally had something to send to the contest coordinators. It's not that he was difficult to shoot, in fact, most of the time he was in the mood to do the shoots. It was just, well, we never really had modelling experience. Both the model and the photographer. So sometimes it was awkward, and sometimes it was hopeless. Most of the time it was just full of fun and silly things. And that was how it went on most days. And all that labor of love brought us to the interview and screening day.

On hindsight, we did not really get Jakjak ready for any interview. We just told him that there would be one. That they would probably ask him about himself, and that if they did, he can tell them anything he wants to tell them. We knew that he would have to model his clothes and told him to just follow instructions from whoever was coordinating the shoot. We did not tell him what to say, we did not teach him how to pose (goodness, we probably should have). We just let him do whatever he feels like doing and have fun doing it. It looked like he did have fun while we were there. Too much fun probably as he was in a most cheerful mood all day. So we figured, he did good. He did very good, that he received a round of applause from the crowd. After that, was the excruciating wait for the results.