Breiah Adams couldn’t help crying, but she did well to maintain her composure.

This was, after all a farewell speech. As she said, it was a “bittersweet” occasion.

Besides, she shouldn’t have felt bad because a number of people were crying long after she had stopped.

Adams is sincere, too. Her advice for the new class of princesses was primarily to speak from the heart when giving a speech. She certainly did just that in thanking her sister, thanking Amber Alvarez for helping her come out of her shell, thanking Alex Alvarez for his help and thanking her fellow princesses.

“Whenever you go to the events, really take it in and remember it because that’s the memories you’re going to have whenever you get older on your own,” Adams said, another tip she offered.

Those in the audience who didn’t know Adams would have never guessed, but as it turns out, she used to be terrified to speak before large audiences.

“My most challenging thing was getting up and public speaking and singing in front of people because I’ve always been terrified of singing in front of somebody or talking in front of a lot of people,” Adams said. “But the more I did it, the easier it got and I just prayed about it and I was able to do it.”

The only reason she was nervous on this day was because she was afraid she would cry. She did, but it didn’t change anything about the speech.

During her speech, she had a few more small words of advice for the contestants, who stood before her.

“You represent your tribe everywhere you go,” she told them. “Whatever you do today, don’t give up.”
Being a cultural ambassador doesn’t stop for Adams just because she is officially finished as Senior Princess now. Her time as princess may have had serious career implications.

“Whenever I ran for Junior Princess in 2009, we had patchwork classes, language classes (Creek language), finger weaving classes, basket classes, and beadwork classes,” Adams said. “I went to all of those classes every day. For over six months, I went to those classes. From learning that, I just got more interested in it. Then, Mr. Alex Alvarez was teaching me and he’s been helping me along the way and Mrs. Amber Alvarez has been teaching me. They’re teaching our culture and I saw how much they enjoyed it and I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t want to give it up. So, I want to go to school to be a cultural educator, so I can teach our culture and traditions.”

Adams hopes to study either Native American studies or anthropology and history when she attends college next fall.

When she played cultural ambassador while hosting the Seminole Princesses from Oklahoma, the group’s visit stuck with her.

“I never realized there were Seminoles in Oklahoma, but just like our people, they were taken up there on the Trail of Tears,” Adams said. “When they came down here, I’d always notice that there culture is very similar to ours as far as the patchwork, and the language is just about the same except for a few words are different. When they came down here, we got to take them around our tribe and show them our culture and we really enjoyed it.”

While no longer senior princess, Adams will have an impact on the people of her tribe for many years to come.