Think back to when you were younger as to the professions you were encouraged to choose from. About 70% of the people I came across would encourage me to be a lawyer, while the remaining 30% encouraged me to be a teacher like my father. My mother taught me to read very well before I started basic school. My birthday gifts were books every year. I loved reading and I fell in love with poetry from a very young age. I fell in love with the news and reporters in particular, and I knew the profession I was meant for was that of a journalist. This was frowned upon by many as I was told that journalism will not bring me enough money to live a lavish lifestyle. I've never told anyone that I was in search of a lavish lifestyle. Despite the discouraging feedback, I went to University and did journalism just the same. No, I'm not working as a journalist to date but I still have that dream. Throughout my time working on getting my qualifications in the media field, I ventured into my true

"From as long as I can remember I've always wanted to write. My mother taught me to read and write very well before I started school. My birthday gifts were always books and I was always thrilled to receive them. I didn't grow up watching a lot of television so even today I'm still behind on shows that people my age group grew up watching.  Like others, during my teenage years I wanted to fit in and I wanted to be seen. Looking back at it now I can just smile at it because of the growth that has brought me to the woman I am now. We all have things that we are passionate about and mine happens to be poetry. It isn't the most glamorous nor is it filled with expensive accolades but it is what I want to do. In the darkest of times in my life poetry has always been there and I can honestly say that if I didn't have my poetry I wouldn't be here today. We live in a world where people do just about anything to be noticed but I rather have my words be memorable and

Do you remember those old time romance movies and those fairytales that left  us concluding that love is always a beautiful thing and we all have the perfect soul mate out there? Well, welcome to the real world where relationships fall apart just like that and the perfect person on paper is never the perfect person in reality.  The thing is we expect long lasting relationships to be a reality when we already have issues with everyday interactions. The way we relate to each other on a day to day basis has broken down over the years. Based on how older generations speak about their times it was as though respect for self and others was the most important thing. Women respected their bodies and men appreciated a good woman. In our generation now women fall for vanity and men get lost in the swing of hips rather than the goodness of the heart. So are happy relationships a myth? Well no they aren't but they are becoming harder and harder to find. The next thing is the laziness that we h

" I want to give my children everything that I wasn't given as a child", how often do we hear these words being said by parents? Very often right? It's a very good concept but parents please don't forget to give them the things that you received as well. The more times have evolved the less time is being spent with those who we care about. Parents are busy working hard to give their children all that they didn't get as a child that they forget to give them the most valuable of things, love. Now more than ever children are suffering from depression and seeking outlets to get attention from because they aren't getting it from their parents. The social media world paints an image that dressing in matching outfits with your child or posting several pictures with your child shows that you are a good parent. A picture is just a picture and it can hide one thousand stories.  I can guarantee you that when your child grows up what they will remember most is the lov

For years we have heard the saying ' show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are'. Many of us stand by this saying and believe it to be true in all instances. However, I can say to you that this saying isn't always the case because you can be in a situation but not be affected by it. For instance, there are three friends who hang out together for three years, one is a pimp, one is a doctor and one is a happily married teacher. They all maintain their perspective lives and are not influenced by the lives of others. However, there is another group of friends, one is a stripper,one is a stay at home mom and the other is a lawyer. The stay at home mom becomes envious of her lawyer friend because she is making her own money while the lawyer friend is envious of the attention that her stripper friend gets from men while the stripper friend is envious of her lawyer friend because she has a respectable profession. It all comes down to the individual and how easily influe

Growing up many of us were encouraged to either become a doctor or a lawyer. These professions were always placed high on a pedestal and we were told that these are the jobs we should aim for. Firstly, I always wondered why the people who encouraged me to choose one of these paths were not working in any of these capacities. I grew up as a child filled with questions and I would question my parents about everything. From a very young age I loved writing and I knew that I wanted to spend my life doing this. My parents on the other hand never encouraged that dream of mind as I was always encouraged to become a lawyer or a doctor.  When I listen to children on our primary and preparatory quiz competitions the most popular professions are lawyer and doctor. We neèd to encourage our children to look at other paths. Many of us will not be able to become a lawyer or doctor either because of finances or because we don't have the intelligence for it. Parents need to realize that everybody i

In Jamaica these days calls are coming from call corners for more attention to be placed on our children to ensure that we protect them as best as possible. We should ensure that they get off the streets early, they aren't taken advantage of and that they attend school. However, what about the examples that we set for them? The way we dress, the relationships we keep, the way we talk to each other, shouldn't we be taking a look at that as well? This takes me to our female entertainers and the examples that they set. From a very young age children find a love for music and they easily eat up everything they see and hear. Recently, two of our most popular female entertainers got into an argument on social media for the entire world to see. It wasn't just the fact that they were arguing but it was mostly about the things that they were saying to each other. Everyone has access to the internet and unfortunately children are getting electronic devices at a very young age. The in

Growing up in Jamaica I always heard that black women who enter relationships with white men are either doing it because they lack self esteem, they want him for his money or they want 'pretty hair children'. In 2015, some of these same conclusions are drawn whenever we see interracial couples walking hand in hand and settling down to get married. I've noticed a trend in which young black ladies  after migrating have ended up settling down with a white man. Are good black men becoming a rare commodity or have our black women given up on our black brothers? I'm not here to judge anyone and I for one could care less about the skin colours of couples. I've just come to observe that our young women are opting to settle down with white men. I decided to speak to a couple of black young ladies to get their views on this issue and this is what they had to say. Shanice: I'm currently in a relationship with a relationship with a white man. I chose him because he offered

Everyone seems to have all the advice to give you to keep your relationship together but not so much advice is found after the relationship has come to an end. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is moving on too soon after a relationship is over. Today, I'm going to highlight some of the dangers of moving on too soon without giving yourself enough time to heal. ✅ After the end of a painful relationship you are in a very vulnerable state and people could end up taking advantage of your situation. They may initially appear to be a comforter but slowly make their moves and before you know it you think you have fallen in love.  ✅ The ending of a relationship sometimes seems women running to the first open arms and end up engaging in risky sexual behaviour. Engaging in these risky sexual behaviour post break up will have you feeling regretful later on and leave you with not the best of reputations. ✅ One of the biggest dangers of moving on too quickly is that you still have yo

Apparently, the in thing is to say that the world is either filled with only fake people or you can trust anybody. Yes, I do agree that more and more these days we are surrounded by people who continually to show themselves to be untrustworthy.  From people who have little to nothing to people who have all the riches in the world people are proving to be hard to trust. Because of this perception relationships, business and everyday interactions have become somewhat more difficult. When you meet someone for the first time they tend to bombard you with more questions than usual. For those in relationships their partners are more skeptical of the things they do and say. For business owners they have to watch their employees keenly while employees have to be careful of those they work for. My question however is if everyone is speaking out about the increase in untrustworthy people who are those people who are indeed still trustworthy? Believe it or not there are still people in this world

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with a little water and held it before me, and said this: "You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love." This was how I saw it: "As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. Ho wever, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it finds. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love...they try to posses it, they demand, they expect... and just like the water spilling out of your hand, Love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings. Give and don't expect. Advise, but don't order. Ask, but never demand. It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetim

Everyone is struggling with something or another and we all look for answers in either things or people. When we are vulnerable we sometimes tend to forget to properly analyze the source that we take our advice from. Believe it or not these days there are a lot of people who will take advantage of your vulnerable state and feed you with the worse advice at the time when you need the best of advice to help you move forward. Many people have ended up in far worse situations than they started out in just because they quickly ate up the advice of others. Everyone is different and different strokes work for different folks. Someone may have the best of intentions but that particular advice isn't the best for the person that you are. When we are vulnerable we have to still be very careful about the people who we decide to take life changing advice from because at the end of the day they aren't the ones who have to live with the consequences.

1 . Continually focusing on other people success      It's always good to see others becoming more and more successful and success stories can help to motivate us to become even more successful ourselves. However, becoming obsessed with the success of others may just leave us feeling bad about ourselves. Others may be moving fast on their path to success while you find yourself moving a bit slowly. We need to to step back at times and realize that each of us are on different paths and we can't keep comparing ourselves or becom envious of the success of others. 2. Working just to pay the bills    Yes we all need money to make ends meet but just getting up and going to work just for working sake will drive you crazy!!! We need to find some form of joy in the work we do not just do it because we know it's something we have to do. Ever wonder why so many of us are so stressed out despite having the money come in every week? It's often times because we are puttin