Miss Scotland runner-up... I'm still bursting with pride

Last week I competed for the title of Miss Scotland 2017 and for the chance to be a global ambassador for our country at the Miss World competition.

I am incredibly proud of how I performed in the run-up to the contest and I am even prouder to tell you all I came second overall!

Going into the competition I didn’t have particularly high expectations of placing well. Last year I made the interview stages and wasn’t chosen as one of the finalists.

So this year even making the cut was a massive win. Setting myself a target of making the top five was something I aimed for.

However, missing two of the events because I was in Cyprus scuppered my confidence completely.

Booking a last minute holiday felt like a brilliant idea – not so “brilliant”, though, when I realised I was missing two point scoring events.

That being said, my time as a finalist was nothing less than amazing. We were given so many unique opportunities to learn and do new things and even being involved with that was more than enough for me.

By the time last Thursday came around, every one of the finalists was nervous but we knew that, regardless of the result, we’d be overjoyed for whoever took the title.

Hearing my name being called as runner-up was so overwhelming – I’m still bursting with pride whenever someone congratulates me.

Although some people say it was a close call, I completely agree with the result. It wasn’t my turn this time but I’m overjoyed to have done as well as I did.