:: About LaKiesha

“If you don’t like me the way I am that’s your business … It’s my mentality Bermuda’s not ready for.”
So said 21-year old Lakiesha - nothing if not strong-minded, and disillusioned with what she sees as the limits of The Rock. “Not Bermuda itself but people in Bermuda are quick to down somebody,” she said.
For example: “I don’t wear makeup, I don’t put beads in my hair, I don’t go out of my way for anybody, to try to look like something I’m not.” However in Bermuda, a place where “everybody worries about everybody”, Lakiesha’s determination to be herself often got her into trouble.
“I used to get into lots of confrontations,” she said. “If you want to know something about me just come out and ask. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
Finally, tired of the rumor mills and the gossiping and the pettiness, Lakiesha had had enough. So she leapt on a plane and left - without telling anyone that she was going. “I was 18 years old.
“I went to San Juan, I went to New York, I went to St. Croix, to Germany, London, Connecticut, Atlanta, everywhere - Florida - you name it, I did it.”
Lakiesha spent most of her time in New York working odd jobs as a hairdresser, a baby sitter, or modeling for sketch artists. She lived in a hotel, in apartments around the city. “I met a lot of people, big people, that could take you places” - such as people working for Fashion Institute of Technology, one of the leading fashion design school in the world.
And it was hard. “I was out there on my own, I didn’t know anybody,” she said. Unable to call family or friends when she was in trouble, she had to rely on her own wit and resourcefulness. “You had to manage your money, you had to worry about yourself and that’s why I tell people nowadays - if you just go away and you see how hard it is to take care of yourself you would not come back as small-minded as you are.