Unmasking the Real Me

By Nakeeta McNeil

"Unmasking the Real Me" details the early years of Nakeeta J. McNeil and is intended to encourage others that it doesn't matter where they come from, but rather, where they get to and what they ultimately do with that opportunity. The message is that people's past should not determine their present or their future. This took ti

• Language: English
• Publisher: NDA Consulting
• Release date: Aug 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735572314

Nakeeta McNeil

Born and raised in Jamaica, McNeil is an ambitious young woman who relocated to the United States at the age of 14. While she looked forward to a new beginning in America, she was plagued with the anger of feeling abandoned by her mother and discounted by her father. Her grandparents who had raised her and her brother were the only constant in her life, and she took them for granted until she matured and better understood their sacrifices and love. "Nakeeta" means unconquered, and that is the life that she currently lives. No matter what life throws at her, she has always found a way to overcome and conquer it all by the grace of God.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Proving Them Wrong

It all started when I was 12 years old. I started to see life more clearly then. 

My grandmother was calling me from the kitchen.

Yes, mama, I answered.

Your mom is on the phone, and she would like to talk to you.

Hi, mummy, I said after taking the phone from my grandmother. When are you coming back for me? I’m tired of living here. Everything is so hard, and I know America is a much better place for me to live.

I got straight to the point. It was like I was holding it in for a long time and couldn’t wait for the first opportunity to tell her.

Well, baby, I  don›t have the money right now, and I still didn’t get my papers to travel yet, she told me.

I was so upset that I told her I was going to kill myself because I was counting on her to make everything better and do it right away. My grandmother took the phone away from me and made it clear to me that I was not going to kill her first daughter with stress. Do you want my daughter to go strip to make money? Not over her dead body, she continued.

I disrespectfully rolled my eyes and stormed out the living room mumbling.

I’m not one who likes to be told what to do, and for that matter, I sometimes find myself in tense situations that are difficult for me to escape and manage. Even when I have gotten out of these situations, I would find myself back down that same road again because I didn›t learn the first time.

I was a very serious child growing up. I was not very peaceful and humble. I was the one in my household that was ready to curse people out and fight for the least little thing so I could show them how big and bad I was.

I came from a Christian background as far as I can remember, but why do I have to get baptized? I thought to myself. Everywhere I went, people wanted to tell me about God, but