Story time: If younger Charlette could see me now. I say younger and not little Charlette because let’s face it at 5’2 and a smidge I hardly grew up did i? I think most people who view my stories, my page or have met me will think of me as a overly confident individual. You ain’t wrong! But I am still very proud of this accomplishment and this day. There is something in seeing and acknowledging how far you have come. This was my first and hopefully not my last hosting/panel opportunity. Before I accepted @treasuretress invite to host this welling being workshop with @imbuecurls creative director @hairbymichellesultan and @laurajayneu I did hestitate saying yes, this is why. As you may or may not know I was born and raised in Jamaica. I mean country/bush Jamaica. I’m very proud of this by the way but being from the ‘bush’ my accent was that of what people will associate with the older generation Jamaican persons. I didn’t have that cute city girl twang. So here I was fresh in the U.K. as a 8 year old going into year 4 with what would be a 60 year old grandma patois voice with patois proverbs to boot. So naturally everytime I opened my mouth people laughed which made me not what to speak at all. Anyways I don’t know if a Jamaican can be shy so even though I had hesitation speaking I still thought oh well. Until my first crush (primary school) I will refer to him as Boy A. Anyways this boy was new and transferred to my primary school - everyone wanted to be his friend. All the girls asked me to ask Boy A to play. Nervously I went to do it and well I already spoke fast at the best of times when speaking patois and then coupled that with nerves. He laughed in my face whispered to his mate and his friend said to me “he said speak English”. This one moment prevented me from speaking publically again until I did drama in year 10 and my teacher forced me to speak. P.S Boy A lived a nightmare after that. I am very sporty and every chance I got in football, Patball anything basically I made it a mission to shame him and beat him at everything. My ‘I will show you not to underestimate me or make a fool of me’ mentality was created on that day. I’m proud