You have accomplished so much at just 27 years of age. What goals are you still working toward?
The goal I am working toward is becoming a successful motivational speaker. That’s at the forefront of my mind in terms of goals. Up until this stage in my life, I didn’t even know. Once I finished my Master’s degree and won Miss USA, I’m thinking, “Wow, what else is there to do?” Because winning a pageant was at the top of my bucket list.
Balance must be really hard between your Army career, civilian career, and serving as Miss USA. How did you balance those three areas of your life?
The way I found balance is to write everything down. Any event that I had coming up, the time had to be blocked out. I’m able to plan out day-by-day, hour-by-hour, when I’m going to go to sleep, and when I’m going to prepare my next speech. I look over my schedule for the next day to ensure I understand how to deal with a very, very long and strenuous schedule. My planner helps me keep things balanced.
Some people have a way of planning things in their mind, they know how to handle their day-to-day activities based on what’s plugged in their brains. I’m the total opposite. I literally have to see it and have it placed in front of me to say, “Okay, this is what I’m doing from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; this is what I’m doing from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.” so on and so forth. I even set aside time periods to watch a movie. It may seem a little too straining, but due to my incredibly busy schedule, time management is imperative.
Does your Army career, civilian career and your status as Miss USA ever conflict with one another?
There’s always a conflict. There are a lot of organizations or people pulling me in every direction, so I really do have to prioritize what I’m doing from each day. I leave it up to my manager to prioritize based on what the organization is most focused on, or what they are interested in being a part of. They do a good job of saying, “DeShauna, what do you want?”
Obviously, everything I try to do is veteran focused. I try to make anything with military organizations a priority, although that doesn’t always work out in my favor. I try to prioritize any community service event before the glitz and the glamour of the Miss USA title. I believe it’s so much more than a sash and a crown. It’s an opportunity to make an impact. I try to make anything that is impactful a priority over everything else.
