The Dr Jackie you see today is not the Jackie I was 2 or 3 years ago. The person I am today is a product of my choice to let the challenges I faced and the lessons I learnt be just that, lessons and challenges which helped make me make the decisions I felt were the best to make.

Being in the working world from an early age, it opened my eyes to the many challenges people face and that environment re-enforced my innate duty I feel to help others and to help my family. Born into a family of 5, the challenge to make a difference in a group is that much harder. And this is not to say that we were highly competitive but that being in an environment of five siblings really motivates you to do well and help each other do well also. We were and always will be a team.

This importance of teamwork is a quality that still influences me today. Everything that I do is focused on helping those around me based on the many qualities I harbor and innate duties I feel to do so. Like with my many annual conferences and my experiences as a teen in the working world, I found a way to create opportunities I wish I had growing up. It is through using my personal experiences as tools, that I am able to make these changes and create spaces that were otherwise empty that makes what I do seem that more meaningful yet simple.

But my life has not been very easy. I have had to motivate myself through many hard times and some of my hardest times manifested during my introduction to motherhood. From having complications during my pregnancy to getting a huge scare about my eldest son, I have definitely seen it all and have a deep and appreciative understanding for mothers and their teens in general. For me, I think it is important to shine light on our mothers, especially locally in Jamaica as they really are the backbone of our society and literally hold our country’s future in their hands. This is why I make an extra effort to utilize the ways afforded to me to help empower and make any difference I can in their situations. I have been there and I understand the importance and difference it makes to have a solid foundation and source of support during motherhood as that journey like the journey to success is filled with many ups, downs and in betweens.

The best depiction of my growth is described perfectly by the book of Esther, Chapter 12, verse 27 which says to “become like a child”. It is true that a big perk of parenthood is revisiting your child self through the eyes of your child. As we grow up we lose that sense of excitement and wonder towards our lives and the world and that can sometimes be a hindrance to growth. Becoming as a child is not to be taken literally but instead, pushes us to be accepting that we are not in control of everything, we do not know everything but if we ask the right questions and remember to ask them, that we truly are able to understand.

It is this mindset that influences my decisions and helps me to relate to others on a simple level. Accepting the things you cannot change and being open to the many possibilities truly is my personal story. Which means that with each day, I continue to learn something new and continue to build upon it day after day. If you would like to read more about my life and accomplishments, feel free to continue checking out the rest of my website, you are sure to find something worth reading!