Becoming Me | Lauretta A. | Executive, Navigator, Culture Builder

Becoming me— it wasn’t a straight line. It was a dance, a climb, a series of unexpected turns that shaped the shape of me. 

Chapter 1— a child of two worlds: an Army veteran father who carried battles and a mother from the Bahamas whose laughter smelled of sea salt and sun. Love and absence intertwined, teaching early that beginnings don’t always promise endings. 

Chapter 2— when youth collided with responsibility. A teen parent before I had even learned the weight of my own dreams. I didn’t just survive—I chose who I would become. 

Chapters 3, 4, 5— raising three children on a solo voyage through storms. No applause. No shortcuts. Only the quiet power of hands that refuse to let go, of a heart that refuses to break. 

Chapter 6— survival. Poverty. Days that tested faith. Nights that tested patience. But even in the shadows, I built—brick by brick, dream by dream— proof that nothing can stop a soul that refuses to stop. 

Chapter 7— I returned to a dream I thought I’d left behind. College books, late nights, early mornings, the thrill of learning and the fire of proving that delay is not defeat. 

Chapter 8— a quiet second chance. A new love, a new path, a gentle step forward in a life that had once been a sprint, now a dance. 

And now—Chapter 9— success wrapped in humility, growth wrapped in gratitude, healing wrapped in hope. I walk into rooms I once believed were closed to me and claim my place, my voice, my story. 

Which chapter made me? Each. Every. One. The struggle. The sacrifice. The survival. The triumph. All of it.  Some chapters crooked, some steady, some barely held together, but all necessary— because without one, I wouldn’t be me. 

Here’s to the chapters yet unwritten. Here’s to the dreams still whispered in the quiet. Here’s to the power in every step, every stumble, every victory— because each one carries me closer to the truest version of myself, and that is me— becoming me.