 I grew up in La Quamengo, which is a little outside of Castries. I absolutely love La Quamengo because of the fantastic views of Marigold and Ancelary and Castries to a certain extent. I grew up at Hospital Road. Castries was my backyard riding roller skates, biking with the boys. I am the ninth child of 11 siblings. I went to the Anglican Primary School and I moved to the Anglican Secondary School. At that time, it was a junior sec. I moved on to the Castries Comprehensive School in Form 4. I spent three years there and then moved on to the A-Level College. I am from the village of Miku. I attended the Miku infant school and the Miku Primary School and these were fantastic days. I have very fond memories of attending those two schools. From there, I transitioned to the St. Joseph's convent. I actually grew up between Grid Street, Castries and Meenard Hill and I went to school at the Castries Anglican Primary School. I mean, my childhood was pretty boring to say the least. I was raised with a very strict father so didn't do much, didn't go out much, just between school and home. Following that, I went into the St. Joseph's convent and then south of Lewis. Mainly between Miku Street and Castries and in Brasile where I spent the next many, many years. I went to school from about age three at the convent but I left in Form 1 and went to school in Barbita's boarding school and spent five years there. I think because I was so quiet, because I did not know anybody, I was perceived as a bit rude. So in convent, there was this conduct. You go up there, there are merit badges and conduct badges. So that first semester, I was probably the only person who got a merit badge who did not go up for good conduct. I was like, me, little old me, I hardly talked to anybody. But after that, I mean, that did change. You start interacting and making friends. So again, I think having something to prove, I needed to prove that the little girl from Lapo-Mango can do it and I did. Sciences again, my interest, not very good at sports admittedly and the late Janie Williams, she was one of those in Form 3. I remember trying my hand at volleyball. Janie looked at me one day and said, my girl, continue to get your merit badges of volleyball thing or working out for you. I traveled every day of the five years. It was fun. Imagine a busload of children coming up from Miku to castries every morning from about 6 a.m. and getting back home after four. The amount of mischief we could get up to on the bus and in between the school, the city and Miku. Yes, good times. Being in boarding school is very supportive and because it's supportive and it's very disciplinarian. So you learn both. You learn to be disciplined in whatever work you do and you learn that you must support other people and that's principally what I think stands out the most from school. I went into the St. Joseph's Convent and then South Alois. For A-Level, I remember being forced into a program that I absolutely did not want to do. When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a chef because I loved cooking. I aced food and nutrition and so I really wanted to be a chef. So I wanted to go to South Alois to study hospitality studies and well, I got a three maths. So because of that, obviously I did not get priority to go into that program. Persons who got ones and twos got priority into the program. But my father insisted that I'm not going to stay in the house and wait a full year to get into that program so I'm going to do whatever is available. And what was available? Secretarial studies. The one thing that I had vowed never in my life to be was a secretary and there I was doing secretarial studies. What stood out particularly for me was I was the captain. When I took over the captaincy of Heron House, that year we won for the first time in a long time and we carried that championship for two years. So that stood out for me. At that point, even before that, I was house captain at NGP Junior Sec as well, but winning the championship after so long Heron House, Blue House hadn't won, it was an accomplishment for me and from that day onwards I thought I'm a leader. After the A level college, I worked at Pricewood House during the summers and when I was done with the A level college, back then it was Pete Mawik I moved to Pete Mawik, they hired me full time as a secretary. I think Pricewood House sort of gave me the stepping, it was like a stepping stone in my professional career. I loved accounting, I do not like audit, so I stayed in accounting. I was the assistant accountant there and a job opportunity came up at Sunshine Bookshop after being an assistant accountant for seven years. One single memory in Cuba that stands out to me, I don't know, they could, I think there was a dengue campaign once and we are students because in Cuba you have to be involved in everything. It's not just a question of being in the classroom, you have to be involved from day one in terms of seeing patients and interacting with patients, going out into the community because that is how medicine is in Cuba and we were doing I think what we call it pesky sahi, so they go out to find things. Things don't come to you when you're surprised that this is happening. We're going out to do dengue, work with dengue essentially to find the patients, to guide them, to teach and to educate and there was this little girl and she's like, they don't need to erase and what I mean is where are you from? That she just taught us speaking the way we spoke because obviously the accent what you speak in Spanish is what's very intriguing to her and this little girl followed us the whole time through her community and as it turned out she later did go into medical school, she's currently in medical school right now because we were able to keep in touch with her so they think that you know if you've inspired one person to do one thing in life, I think it's something to be proud of and I do think we had something to do with this particular little Cuban girl. I'm going into medicine and of course joining the La Batalla, La Armada de Batas Blancas as they call in Cuba so the white coat army and she's going to be part of that and we suspect she's going to be brilliant at it. When I came back home because I completed medical school in 2007, came home, worked in the departments of internal medicine and oncology recognizing the shared number of patients in St. Lucia who had chronic kidney disease and at the time we did not have our own nephrologist. What we had with the Cuban nephrologist would come for two year periods and go back home do two year stints and the sense of ownership I believe is simply not there when you come to a place which is not your home for two years and then you go back so I felt not only did I like that particular system in medical school because there was a need in St. Lucia that's what I was going to do so I did get a scholarship in 2010 and went back to do nephrology. I completed those studies in 2013 and I've been back here since then. I left Sir Arthur and I went into a secretarial role of course because that's what I studied and that's where I did my job training and that's how I started my career as a secretary at SLBGA at the time. After that I worked within the government service. I started as a temp so I would hold on for persons who went off on vacation you know prolonged vacation or maternity leave and I moved from one ministry to the next because I mean I made a I guess I I proved myself as somebody who was very focused you know very few young persons will as focus or demonstrated some of the personal attributes that I demonstrated and so I was sought after so as soon as I left to one department they would assign me to another I did that for maybe about two years so I moved from the ministry of finance prime minister's office registry of civil status ministry of tourism and some other areas and and then I moved into the ministry of communications and works at the time colleagues George was the the minister I became his secretary and I was appointed finally within the service as a secretary I worked with him for a short while and then they started the project to corporatize wasa into our school and they needed an admin person so he volunteered it was his project his baby he volunteered his secretary so I moved over to wasa worked on the project while I was there I got the opportunity to apply to cable and wireless because there was a vacancy and so once I was done with the project I actually was successful at the cable wireless interview I never went back to the ministry I left the service and went into the private sector and I've been there ever since from the St Joseph's convent I I taught for two years I think that's where I started my whole career path but moved into meteorology at that time I thought this was what I really wanted to do I wanted to fly into the eyes of hurricanes and stuff like that so I worked at the med office for 11 years and decided that I was a bit more ambitious than this because there were so many other guys who were more senior to me and the possibility of upward mobility was very slim I stopped when I moved off to study my masters in 2005 I started off as a student in the challenge program at the university well it was continuing studies at the time on the morning and so it was part-time study I would travel on evenings to class and then sometimes from class head back straight to work because I'd be working the night shift at the airport at the time so I did my first two years of my program locally part-time what stood out for me in my final years of study in Trinidad there was a whole different cultural experience I met some fantastic people but I think at that point I really fell in love with international business management and it was at that point after having gone through that course I decided that this is what I really want to specialize in and do my master's in 1989 Miss Independence our 10th independence anniversary the year prior to that I had won the Miss Southern Extravaganza 1988 in Viewfort and so given that I represented Viku I think it was determined that it would have been the natural progression for me to represent my constituency my community at the independence parade and so I did that at the time I was just thinking of you know the prize money that I could use towards my tuition and I figured why not go out and give it a shot I remember that night very vividly I remember when we dipped backstage and I got number one and I figured okay I could just remain in that place throughout the night and it so happened that that's what happened University of the West Indies was a tougher situation than the University in Canada but it was very exhilarating and it was wonderful to meet so many people from different islands all with very similar goals so the law faculty was was really exciting for that reason law was interesting it was appealing I mean it it really served to tickle your mind it also taught you that how important justice is and fairness to fellow man and it really expanded opened your mind to rights people's rights which I think very important I got married when I was in law school and so that meant that I really followed my then husband's career from very early so we started out in Barbados and there I was in private practice for a few years and then we moved to Antigua and there I was the registrar of the High Court acting registrar of the High Court and deputy registrar of the Court of Appeal of Antigua for Antigua and then we moved to the United States and there I worked with an organization an NGO that dealt with battered desperate migrant women and what we used to do was try to get the T visa which is a US visa that allows these women to remain in the United States even if they are being abused by their spouses or any one of that nature moving along I then went to live in Africa and there I was not really able to practice unless I went back to school and that I did not want to do so for a short while I worked I assisted a friend of mine who was a lawyer over there mainly in office management but it gave me the opportunity to go into art which I had started to love and so I spent a lot of time painting and a lot of time traveling Africa especially Ghana Sierra Leone really looking at the people and looking for great shots since I love portraiture it was more about the people than even the topography after seven years working at Price for the House the opportunity came up to run Sunshine Bookshop it was given it was asked of my at the time the accountant and she decided it wasn't the time for her to move so I said what about me I'm ready so I left Price for the House to move into management and that was in 1996 so I stayed there for almost three years and I got a little bored it was time to move on when I left Sunshine Bookshop I came to Caribbean Metals for three years a job opportunity came up sales and marketing manager stayed for three years decided I need to change course I need to get qualified so I left San Ushua packed my bags decided not to take a loan go to Trinidad and the reason I did not take a loan took all my savings is because I wasn't sure if I wanted to come back to San Ushua the idea I had was after my last exam I would sit on my suitcase outside Penderode in Shaguanas Trinidad and do left right any minute and where the wind took me that is where I was going to go but again I came back to San Ushua and I remember particularly it was one Christmas dinner I was invited Caribbean Metals invited me and my director at the time John Francis came up to me and said you know that job you left behind two years ago it's available I said okay I'm aware because the guy who I trained to take over from me uh he left about three months before I completed my studies because I completed my studies in in two years which is the shortest possible time I had a plan and he said look I'm leaving your job for you come manage your staff I'm like we'll see about it so when I got back uh at a Christmas dinner my job my boss offered me the job and I said why not and here I am since nine 2003 so I've been with Caribbean Metals this year I believe it's 23 years to whom much is given much is expected and we have to give back in that way so I made it a point at every turn to do what I can to educate not only about kidney disease but about general disease we have so much about the non-communicable diseases diabetes hypertension so to educate the population about that as president of the solution medical and dental association since 2019 not particularly easy especially now during COVID-19 the reality is as a leader you are dealing with multiple different personalities and you have to try to find a way to bring it all together and lead the organization in a way that you're doing the best that you possibly can do for the general membership there are many roadblocks there are many stumbling blocks and COVID-19 really has brought out the best in some of us and the worst in some of us those are the realities any crisis is going to do that but finding a way to inspire people to get people to get involved and do what we all have to do to get the country through this it has not been easy we think that's why we've done pretty well myself and the mostly female executive in moving the SLMD forward and getting it to a place that we could contribute meaningfully to this fight generally for healthcare in St. Lucia for better healthcare for equitable healthcare but even more so during this COVID-19 pandemic with COVID-19 what we've noticed is that there are many women in leadership in St. Lucia when you look at the physician body in our hospitals and our health centers it's predominantly women when you look at the medical director the chief medical officer so all those key positions are held by women so we do have a very strong voice and a very strong say in the decision making in the policy making in this country as it pertains to healthcare and suddenly as it pertains to COVID-19 when I got into my first HR role I had no experience in HR I have never studied HR I worked with a Pakistani at the time I was the only St. Lucia in what was called the East Area Office at Cable and Wireless so it was a sort of a regional office based there again based on my personality don't say no to a challenge I saw it as an opportunity and said you know what if he sees something in me to make him have that level of confidence and take that chance on somebody who has no background or training or experience in the field then I need to give it a shot and not make him regret that that decision so I took on the job it was in the call center at the supervisory level so that was my promotion into supervisors the status and then within a very short time well I registered with the with UE to actually complete a program in human resource management because I felt I'm not going into this thing blindly I need to you know equip myself with the knowledge and the skills to really be good at this because I don't like to fail you know so I moved on from the call center into the St Lucia business unit as a manager this time and shortly after that I was promoted to the vice president of HR and shortly after that head of HR for the southern Caribbean cluster I say shortly after that but these road these promotions were like two or three years apart but I was always very involved in everything that happened in the organization I think my success in HR is attributed to the fact that I made it my business to know the business I do recall the question it has been a question that has played in my mind very often through the years I remember being asked do I believe that Caribbean women are exploited and my answer to this was no I didn't think we were because I noted at the time that Caribbean women had been finding themselves in a number of positions which in some other parts of the world would have been considered positions primarily or traditionally held by men but in the Caribbean our women I think had been pretty much more forward in that they had found themselves in the courtroom in the boardroom in the classroom holding prominent positions in our communities and so back then in 1989 I did not think our Caribbean women were being exploited a number of experiences through the years have honed my skills my abilities and I think well prepared me to be the permanent secretary of a ministry as big as the Department of Education Innovation and Gender Relations I can recall when I was told when I decided I needed to transition from meteorology into something more a mainstream public service and I was told I was being promoted to the post of accountant I cried because accounting for me was a language all onto itself it's not something that I understood it's not a career path that I ever sought for myself however the individual that I am would not allow me to fail as an accountant and so I gave it every effort I was the senior accountant at the Ministry of Infrastructure then Communications and Works I moved on as the financial analyst at Ministry of Finance and Legal Affairs and in all of my skill sets that probably would have been one I would have considered as one of my weaker areas but that experience in the public service in those various career positions definitely stands me in good stead to function at at the helm of this ministry because especially now with these critical economic times with limited resources and finances I think my knowledge of government accounting and finance allows me to function effectively in this position dealing if a challenge I recognize it for what it is and look to see how I could best find the solution and I know sometimes the solution does not always reside within me I look to the people around me as well to come up with possible solutions to whatever the challenge is I was passing once in the car it was like three four hours out of Accra and I saw these children sitting on stools outside in the open air and a man looking like he was instructing them that's all they had stools they did not even have slates or anything and he was under a tree and I asked well what is he doing they said that's their school and that's their teacher so I got out the car and I spoke to him after a while and he said that's what they have so I went back and in speaking to the diplomatic association at one of our meetings I asked if we could you know get donations for that particular tribe which we did and so I would collect on their behalf school books supplies funds anything that I could get to help them and then I would drive out the three to four hours and meet them and they were always happy to see me there is a a system in in many parts of the world but where I was in Ghana where um debt is repaid by the let's say the indenture ship or the apprenticeship of girls young girls so that led me to want to find out more and I went again out into the communities I would go to the puberty festivals these that's where you brides are chosen young brides early and I would go and and observe them and just speak to them to the women find out what they think about about what they're doing now I don't want us to take our western viewpoint of this either so I was careful not to form too many judgments it was all very eye-opening to me and um led me to appreciate what democracy fairness justice that I had learned in St Lucia really looks like so COVID-19 is very hard on all of us both sexes um but I think it it is particularly hard on women because we are the caregivers um as caregivers we are doing not just earning a living as men would have as men men have the responsibility have the responsibility of being the breadwinner but they don't have the additional burden of the caregiving they may if they choose but generally speaking they don't so women found themselves now either in quarantine or isolation or whatever they need to be at home because they've been sent home as as many of us that don't need to gather as possible so they're at home but they're still the ones they all the kids are also at home because the schools have closed so they're the ones working from home teaching from home and doing all the caregiving they're they invariably they're looking after a mother or a grandmother as well and those support systems for those people are also not available not even church is available so you find though I think the burden really rests heavily on women general manager that sums it up managing everything um so I oversee the entire operations of the company we have a staff complement of about 45 persons manage management structure production manager sales and marketing manager then we have a senior accountant and the rest line staff so I just manage the entire operation ensure that we procure goods and time I have someone doing that but I oversee that ensure that the goods are coming at the highest quality and standards ensure that we our customer services par excellence so ensure that we do continuous training with our staff in terms of technology continuously putting technology in our processes one of the things I made a commitment to myself was every year we're going to bring in a new product line which is what we've been doing we want to get to a one-stop shop so right now my feelers are out looking at you know the avenues and how can we achieve that a lot of our processes um is done by mail by uh by the guys the gentlemen uh in terms of the crane handling the crane welding and stuff like that uh so we have most of our processes the it's it's sort of like male dominate dominated now for now the staff members have never gotten the sense that they would not prefer a female boss or they would prefer male boss I think because I'm female uh I believe it it is something that they I believe they're proud of it and I think more so that I'm a solution even our customers the contractors and so I think it's a welcoming thing uh I find they're they very you you don't get a sense of you know why would I want to deal with a woman I did have an experience though but it was with a company from overseas I believe they were Israelites from Israel and I don't believe they have that sort of women in those roles and even when they wanted to conduct business they literally said they prefer to deal with a man from my experience I don't feel disenfranchised I'm doing this job and what people perceive me to be on the outside as a matter of fact if you look around in this type of job I'm doing which is hardware construction if you look around a lot of our leaders business leaders are women take for example when you look in the south particularly in the south a lot of those businesses in the one that I'm running are headed by women so that's a plus like I said earlier I think people generally welcome seeing women at the helm of those industries it does I believe it does something to our nation the way we perceive women which is a good thing we know the stigma attached to women are always uh the underdogs and there's no parity I believe there's still a sense of no parity uh in terms of renumeration women men men just have to show up women have to show up and come with all the credentials we know that but in terms of persons giving of that sort of sentiment I don't feel I have never experienced it and I don't feel like I said anything but support for women in my role I will not say that misogyny is of course the exception to every rule but misogyny is a major issue here in St Lucia if only because I think we are in the majority so if hypothetically there were a misogynistic person you simply don't get that opportunity to have it manifested so much because there are so many more female physicians and in leading roles than there are men so we work very well with our male counterparts because we recognize that you have to work together because if this isn't done collaboratively just healthcare generally there's this fight against COVID-19 this global pandemic and just about everything that we could possibly talk about as it relates to problems or opportunities there are that we as women sometimes do it as emotional the emotion sometimes does come up but I think the heart is there I think St Lucia is gender balanced though some may say that our men are becoming more marginalized but I do recognize that we have attained gender parity within the public service gender parity in terms of salaries for men and women I can say for the most part I am treated as an equal and a professional among my colleague permanent secretaries my opinions are sought and valued even when I represent my ministry or my country internationally I feel treated as a as an equal respected as a professional there are instances of course where misogyny has read its ugly head and you find persons are not always willing to take directives from a female header but these are in the minority these instances are in the minority at the beginning of my career you know when people found out what job I had they were like looking around the room for who really holds the position you know and people would be like that's at the time I was Goretti Lorenzi and say that's Goretti Lorenzi that's the VP of HR because I look like this little girl you know and some people would not appreciate what I brought to the table from just looking at me but when I when I start to speak I win them over eventually you know but at the beginning it was a challenge because of that I remember not putting a photo on my LinkedIn profile for a long time just to avoid the discrimination the age discrimination because I got it all the time so HR wise is a fourth of this human resource management company which I started after I left Cable and Wireless so having journeyed through Cable and Wireless and reaching the a senior leadership position within the region I felt like you know I had done my part there I felt like I had already because I'm a fixer by nature so I go in and I fix things I put policies I implement things I train people I focus a lot on training so I train the managers to be able to function at a higher level there became a time where I felt like okay my job here is done there's nothing more I can do and so it was time for me to move on into something a little more challenging in St. Lucia I know that we have a large number of women in senior positions more than many other countries I know that there are situations where the inequality is very clear the biases are very clear but luckily for me I've never experienced it I worked in an environment where the question of gender never came up and I was able to progress throughout my career never feeling any worse off or any or that I was treated differently because I was a woman I never felt that at present I work as the senate president of the parliament of st Lucia I am also an attorney at law and I have and I'm in private practice and I also work as a chair of I'm the chairperson of the independence committee I'm also the chair of the national archives and the cultural development foundation my favorite is the being the senate president it allows me to use what I'm trained to do which and I and it allows me to go right back to what I learned and how I felt growing up about fairness transparency good governance justice etc in the conduct of my work as senate president I try to remain as unemotional as possible I think that's the only way you can do it because you're listening to two sides of a story and and you're trying to be fair you're trying to be the referee if needs be and so I believe that getting involved in the debate itself and feeling the passion and the emotion on both sides does not serve you well so I try to be as unemotional as possible sometimes they say I don't smile and I'm not enjoying the jokes etc I try to stay out of that I don't really think that anything should become an issue because you're female I just come with the view that I've come to do a job or a project and I do it regardless of gender but I will see that generally older men are very supportive younger men a little bit admiring females most women are supportive almost all age groups are supportive the biggest challenge comes with the the male that the males that are in my age group so I think there's a little bit of a challenge there maybe they have a little discomfort with um women in authority but having lived in other parts where I saw you know burning of brides and and and and children being um sold off to older men and things like that where I saw women not allowed to go out to work um where I saw widows not allowed to work because their husbands were now dead where I saw so much disadvantage to women being at home I'll see that we live in a matriarchal to my mind a matriarchal society where women really have a lot of authority and run their homes even if you look they're well educated in some areas they're actually many more women educated than men in law if you look at the civil service if you look at even our our governance we have had women at the top for many years where we are disadvantaged is in economic empowerment so women really have to they run their homes but they're most of the men I don't want to say most let me not exaggerate a lot of men are roving so she might be in charge of her household but she's reliant partly on a roving gentleman and that creates a little instability in the home and stress for the woman in our field in medicine their patients will believe if you female you're a nurse nurse nurse and everybody there's nothing wrong with being a nurse and we absolutely love our nurses but if you are young female automatically um you're a nurse to many patients and I would prefer to see the male doctor it happens thankfully it's not as prevalent as it used to be but it still happens but I do think we've made huge strides towards attaining that goal of gender equality we're not yet where we want to be but it is significantly better than where we were a few years ago there is nothing stopping a woman from doing the same jobs that men do you know somebody asked me a question it was about it was recruitment they were hiring for a position and the position required the individual to go into a freezer you know it's like wholesale like the supermarkets and when they were going through the applications there was a lady who applied and they said they don't think it's suitable for her and they were talking about the fact that she has to go into the freezer and what it will do to her body and I'm thinking to myself why is that even a consideration it's not her responsibility to figure that out and assess that risk and if she feels having a because she's fully aware she works in the organization so she fully she's fully aware of the job and what it requires and yet she has said I would like to fill this role why are we having the gender composition about whether or not she should be shortly said does she meet the criteria yes she does so let's interview her and she got the job I can't say that there are any challenges that I face that are rooted in the fact that I am woman of course in any organization I think mainly persons are resistant to change and so when they're faced with the decision of an alternative vision or a different pathway I note that persons can be subtly resistant subtly defiant sometimes openly resistant other times missing in action but I don't think all of its stems from the fact that they're being led by a woman two of the main areas where we do not have say a 30% quota of women in top leadership positions I would consider to be one the armed forces say the Royal St. Lucia police force where our women have really not broken the the glass ceiling in that aspect though they are quite competent we have had a number of women within the police force who have excelled in their areas in their fields but we have not had a female police commissioner I would love to see a lot more women get into politics because I know we can do the job and I don't think it's a fault of anybody on the outside it's preventing women from coming I think politics has gotten to a place where persons and I know good friends of mine who would be willing to get into the politics but because of how it's become in terms of the rhetoric and they digging up your past and all of that I think persons both men and women they tend not to want to get into it I think more so for women because women are more a conservative type men don't internalize those things you say stuff about men and they forget but women I believe would more internalize these things because of our nature I would love to see women who are more vocal women who are more confident and can own their position and you know set an example for the younger ones coming up to be in leadership positions within our government I think that would make a huge impact around the world we are seeing so many women now being prime ministers and presidents of various countries and that's definitely something to be proud of because it means that we're finally making some headway in that regard but locally in St Lucia yes we do have some women in government but I I still don't feel like women are represented at that level in the legislature I think we need to improve the numbers of women especially if women want to address their own issues they see it from a different light they deem what the priorities are and this needs to be done by women St Lucia right now is at about 29 30 percent women in legislature the world standard is 30 percent but there are other Caribbean territories that are at 45 percent so I think we have a way to go still if I tell someone I'm an introvert nobody would believe that but I think that's my default state however I know that I need to put myself out there sometimes you know and become a bit of an extrovert so I I psych up myself for those occasions when I have to be very social apart from that I'm an avid reader and I recently in October November they are about discovered fluid art which is something that I have just taken a liking to fluid art is using acrylic paints resin different well that kind of stuff to create artwork coasters anything that you could possibly think of and I've spent a lot of the last couple months this is how I relax from my stressful job creating coasters and doing some fluid art pieces I have a very strong support system and that has been always it starts from my home my mom is my biggest cheerleader she's also my my mentor she's the person that I look up to has always been she's pretty much my best friend I come back up the world blasting my music in my car and feeling good I also have two lovely children I have a 22 year old son and a 17 year old daughter and they keep me grounded they like to see that they're the ones keeping me young so anything that requires me to be out in nature I love peace and tranquility so on a weekend I would just find somewhere to go that that give me that whether it's the beach find a waterfall find some place that I've not seen before dogs I love pets I have six dogs I love cats I love dogs I love to read and just watch get I love true crime I mean some people think of it as very morbid and very sinister but I absolutely love true crime again to see how the human mind works how is it possible of doing this so those are the things I do in my downtime there isn't a lot of it but I do value it I really enjoy most of all music and art and I can stay for I think months maybe even longer maybe even years just painting and listening to music I don't need to interact a lot once I'm able to do those two things I love love art I love anything to do with it the history of art the exhibitions of art the painting just the process of thinking how to create a painting and any of the spin offs of that the other thing that I would take time to do is to go and dance country and western I had two of my friends girls with women who were already in the sport and I had a customer of mine who was in the sport as well and he said you know what you need to come there you know because that's where you'll meet a lot of your customers and your big customers and I'm like okay if I'm going to meet customers if one of me customers and it brings in more business why not so but fortunately for me getting in there because the customers or the persons I met there were already customers were already friends of mine and particularly like I said my girlfriends are two of them who were in it and they're like you know let's do it I think we need golf needs a a new face it needs some you know some new looks I would advise any 17 year old to don't think that where you're at at that point in your life is where you're necessarily going to end up because if at 17 somebody had told me Michelle you were going to be the permanent secretary in the ministry of education I would have probably laughed I would have found that very far-fetched however I want to advise as well that we should embrace challenges along the way and even sometimes we have our mindset on a certain course of action or career path it does not hurt if we are provided with an opportunity to move in a different direction to embrace that always always make a list of what you intend to do of your plans it is wise even if some of them seem unachievable unattainable just make a list I would tell any 17 year old girl that there is nothing that you cannot achieve in life there is no the sky is the limit there is no ceiling you are protected by your constitution which gives you rights which which makes sure that you are not placed at a disadvantage because of your sex therefore whatever you can dream you can accomplish do what you love not everybody has to be a doctor not everybody has to be a lawyer you can change the world in no matter what you do but whatever you do do it with passion