I was born in 1967 on the beautiful Island of Haiti decedent of Egyptian merchants that settled in Haiti. My family migrated to the gorgeous city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the 1950's. We were the first few Haitian families in Montreal. I attended private school in my early years and this is where high expectation of achievement were set. My family prided themselves in always being at the top of their craft, whether it was academics, sports, or career. I was thought that good was never good enough...you had to be the best! I was not allowed to come home with not being at the top of my class... looking back I am thankful that my parents set these high expectations.
As a child I have always enjoyed school, at the tender age of 3 before even starting school, I was reading and spelling with my two older siblings and couldn't wait until I was of age to attend school with them. In elementary school, I was advanced twice in my studies because I was ahead of my peers. I always get great satisfaction from achieving or surpassing my goals and as an adult regardless of past failures, I keep stepping onward and forward in my 5 in Gucci heels.
I had a distinct idea that someday I would attend business school when I was only 9 years old. My 5th grade teacher asked everyone in class what they wanted to be when we grew up and my response was that I wanted to be a business woman and wear fabulous clothes and shoes! I wanted to either own a business or become a dancer/actor. I love to be in front of people, I love to inspire folks, I love to bring happiness and joy to my circle of friends.
I have nothing but great memories growing up in Montreal. Although as a Caribbean child, I've experienced some level of racism, I was not allowed to let it define who I would become. My parents decided to move the family to Brooklyn, New York when I was a pre-teen Those years were especially difficult for me because of the culture shock that I suffered. I didn't speak the language, I didn't eat the food and I couldn't relate to the Americans kids on any levels. I just didn't fit in! I felt like a fish out of water. I buried myself into my dancing and excelled but that was short lived because my mother decided to pull me out of the program because she felt that I would end up on drugs because that was the only faith such lifestyle would bring. My mother had gone from being a devout Catholic to converting to the Pentecostal faith so that meant she could not have a daughter who was a dancer.
After being devastated and robbed of my dream of ever being on Broadway, I immersed myself into sports. Playing sports didn't come easy for me but I stayed focused, never gave up and kept my eyes on the price of winning. Eventually I began to improve and started to contribute to my softball and volleyball team. Scholastically I continued to get good grades and stayed busy by playing in the school band, by peer tutoring, and by being involved in a number of school clubs until I graduated from High School and got accepted to Baruch College one of the best School of Business in New York City. Those were my early years.
I learned as a child that "No matter what comes in life, no matter where you are...staying focused and never giving up is key to continued success..."
