MEET..... LETICIA WRIGHT

Meet my dear friend Teesha. She is 18 years old, studies at Bilborough College, Nottingham and co-leads the Dance Team in our youth ministry, TakeOver.

1. What are the 3 words that best describe you?

    I am outgoing, hilarious and straightforward

2. What are your 3 biggest character flaws? 

    I am short tempered, blunt and stubborn 

3. What are you most proud of?

   I'm not where I used to be as a person

4. What is the biggest character turn off?

   Arrogance 

5. What are 3 things you want to do before you die? 

   Choreograph a musical, go to Disneyland and conquer the fear of sharks by scuba diving


6. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?

    Getting over a heartbreak

7. If you had a superpower, what power would it be and why? 

    It would probably be being invisible because you can sneak in your crush's house, go on free         plane rides and scare people when you reappear.

8. What's your favourite TV show of all time? 

    Criminal minds and Friends

9. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be and why? 

    New York. Upper east side. Because of the glamour and fame (Gossip Girl anyone?)

10. What would be your dream job? 

      My dream job is to become a Broadway dancer.

Thank you so much Teesha. Love you lots. :) xxx

ROSES

One day I came back from a long day at work. It has been a tough week and I was very tired.

I walk into my bedroom and on my fireplace, I see this:

And inside this little envelope this note:

Honestly, I can not deal with pain. This is not going to be a long post on the origin and the evolution of pain in the world but just a snippet of my thinking.
A few weeks have passed since this day and I am now in a better place. I struggled with the concept of pain in any shape or form. In a world where there is so much evil, wars breaking in every corner and violence on a daily basis I wondered where is this God that I profess to believe in and who I love so much. Where is God to save us? Where is He to sort out all this mess? and when pain hits you personally, in your life and you feel it every day then it becomes even more apparent to you that maybe this God is not as good as I thought all my life that He was.

I was so angry and bitter and just disappointed. I understand that through painful situations we learn more about ourselves and we come out stronger on the other side and all that good stuff. But why can't we just learn what we have to when things are going great?

A few weeks have passed now. I am in a better place. I do not have all the answers and maybe I never will but one thing I know for sure is that my God loves me. He is not the author of the evil in this world and He is so full of love that He sacrificed himself in the form of Jesus that we might have a relationship with Him. Because more than anything He wants us.

Pain is not pleasant and never will be and will my ideal life be pain free if I had a choice? Yes, of course. But the treasure I gain when I come out of the difficult situation and I allow it to shape me and mould me into a better, stronger, softer and more genuine me is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Whenever I overcome a trouble, it's a milestone that defines the real me and I'm able to share that with everyone around me. And the more milestones I collect, the more I can look and realise how grateful I am for who I've become.

I am a work in progress. I am not who I'm fully meant to be but I am also not where I used to be. And I am grateful for that. I am a rose, full of thorns and I am beautiful.

Have a great week.

x Princess Leona x

Don't judge a book by its cover

Hello and hope you’re well. :)

So my favourite Italian show has just finished! It’s called ‘Uomini e Donne’ which in English it is literally translated ‘Men and Women’. It is a talk show that witnesses three young people in their twenties (usually 2 guys and a girl) finding true love among the many suitors that come on the show.

It is very interesting to watch how everything may start as a game (it is a TV show after all) but eventually real feelings surface and people do fall in love with each other. 

The reason people love the show so much is cos even though it is televised, it’s real life: these are normal people and not celebrities; you grow with them over the period of 5 months, picking favourites and deciding who could be the best pick for them



That was to give you a little context to what I am about to say. The reason I am writing this is to draw attention to something one of the suitors said before coming to the show.


He said: “ Damn it boy. Don’t fall in love with a girl cos she has a nice bum or a 34GG.

Don’t fall in love with her just for her curves, because with time those will fade.

Rather, fall in love with the smell of her skin, with the feeling she gives you when she smiles.

Fall in love with her hugs and cuddles. Fall in love with her imperfections, make them unique and special. Catch her very essence, be drunk on her soul. Don’t look at her shape, dig into her soul and get to the centre of her heart.

Fall in love with all this cos you will eventually realise, they are the only things that will remain forever. "

This was said from a guy that was covered in tattoos and piercings that people judged straight away as not being serious.

He eventually was the guy that won the girl's heart and took her home.

My purpose is to be like God in all I do. He says: 'man looks at the appearance but I look at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7). 

The guy was talking about love but we could extend that quote to any other area that involves dealing with people.

Let's learn to not judge people by how they look but let's dig deeper.

x Princess Leona x

Fight procrastination!

Yo! Procrastination is the real devil. I am sure that there are worse evils in the world but there is nothing that kills your dreams more than procrastination. Procrastination is what the enemy also uses to kill all your goals and plans without you even FULLY realizing.

You would think that postponing something is not THAT BAD cos you are not saying “I am not doing it” but rather “I am doing it LATER!” It doesn’t sound bad right? At the end of the day you have not refused to complete a task AT ALL but you have just postponed its completion.

And this is my current situation: as a princess, I am called to millions of things to attend to. There is so much potential inside of me and so many passions and desires that I need to explore.

The problem is, working full time in the firm, makes everything more complicated as from the 24 hours I have in the day, once you take out work, travel time, eat and sleep I have 5-6 hours. In my opinion that is not much to get a lot of the things I want done. But I’ve been on a journey titled “HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?” and what I learnt from it all is that ‘when the pain of not doing something is stronger than the pain of doing it, then you will begin whatever you know you need to do.’

I can relate this to a lot of areas in my life but especially in going to the gym. I know that the pain of not going is becoming stronger than the pain of going, actually waking up in the morning, walking those 5 minutes and doing those exercises.

I have to be totally honest with you, I am not there yet: the pain of not doing is stronger than the pain doing it for the few times I have been to the gym but it is still not enough to get me out of the bed all the time.

I can sit here and dash 100 million advice on how to fight procrastination that someone else in the past or present world has already given out and probably made loads of money about it while leaving people still struggling. However, one thing I've learnt is that procrastination is THE thorn in the flesh for some of us and it is one of those pitfalls is hard to get out of.

I am the kind of person that lives a few years ahead: I am not as bad as I used to be but I always like to get to my destination fairly quickly especially when I know which one it is. However, I am now learning to live the present one step at a time, day by day. The hardest step to take is the FIRST but once that is taken, and we push ourselves to take the SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH steps, the engine would have started and the process will start running from thereafter.

So I am gonna go to the gym tomorrow morning. My motivation? As much as I love my bed I don’t want to live a life of regrets.


Let me know what you guys will take the first step in this week in the comments section below.

Be brave.


Princess Leona.

Treat yourself

Hello! I know it’s been a long time coming but I am back. :)


I have started a photography course which I am really enjoying so I am going to implement some of my pictures here and there on the blog. Can’t wait to show off my skills! ;)


Today's post is just to encourage you to celebrate yourself. Treat yourself to something that means something to you no matter how big or small. The general rule is to normally reward yourself after you've achieved something but sometimes it’s nice to just treat yourself.

Yes! I decided to treat myself to a Pandora accessory. I've been wanting it for AAAAGESSSS!!

For a very long time I entertained the thought of waiting till someone buys it for me as a present but sometimes you have to reward your own self and not place that expectation on anybody else cos if you wait around for people you could be waiting forever!

It doesn't have to be an object: it could be something you've always wanted to do or somewhere you've been wanting to go for a while.

What do you like to treat yourself with on a daily/weekly basis? What is that one thing you've always wanted but you can't bring yourself to buy/do it.

Treat yourself to something nice this week. I did. :)

x Princess Leona x

It’s all about timing

I was on the phone yesterday to a friend as I have not spoken to her in a really long time. And we were talking about relationships. We are both Black African girls and we were discussing on the stereotypes that that normally define us: “You are too confident” “You’re too aggressive” “You’re intimidating”. These are all comments that ultimately, attack and undermine someone’s personality rather than their behavior or one’s personal perception of the individual.

She was telling me how she finally landed a really good job only by God’s grace after 9 months of frustration. The little sadness that clouded that moment of joy was that she wished she could celebrate with someone she loved and she was in a relationship with. From there, the conversation went downward through a spiral of “is there something wrong with me?” “maybe I need to tone my character down a bit”. To which I replied: “And then what? You going to keep a toned down version of yourself forever? Of course you know that is IMPOSSIBLE!”.

I truly do believe, as I have learnt from personal experience, that it is good to show your personality bits by bits so that will intrigue the person that gets to know you instead of them having to deal with ALL of you, ALL at once. And this is particularly true with strong personalities. However, this does not mean that you pretend to be someone else for the sake of being with or around someone. You still have to be YOURSELF and be comfortable with the other person, as that's when they truly get to know you.

Ultimately, everything in life is about timing. Timing regulates when we receive our presents and blessings in life. I am a Christian and I do believe that God makes everything happen at the right time as timing is in His hands but either way, life has a way of making things work out just when they ought to. If they happened too early we might not be able to handle them as we might not be PREPARED enough to be responsible for them. Whether it’s a baby, a partner, an object or an achievement, if it comes too early, the blessing that we so much desire can turn into a curse. As a fruit picked prematurely, what was supposed to be a blessing will taste sour and bitter.

If we don’t get to understand that everything in life is about right timing we will start blaming ourselves, other people or circumstances for the things that we don’t have. This will create a vicious cycle of moaning and lamenting without actually making anything positive happen.

“What do I do while I wait?” you may ask: accepting that life is about perfect timing is not an excuse to PASSIVELY WAIT for things to happen. It’s about being active by taking care of yourself, by becoming better every day and by preparing yourself to be able to receive whatever you are wishing for in future. If it is a baby, preparing yourself by reading, talking to people and actually getting some real hands on experience with other people’s babies. If it is a partner, you enhance and improve all sorts of skills like cooking, learn how to drive or discover how to do different things as you now have the time to.

As a princess, I am a perfectionist and honestly speaking, I don’t normally see things half full. But writing has helped me to see that life is really exciting and when you see beauty in everything around you, it makes it so much more enjoyable and worth fighting for.

Discover something new every day and write it down. It doesn’t have to be a long journal entry but even a little note in your diary or planner. Writing it down will show you how blessed you really are.

One afternoon I was fretting about a certain issue to one of my closest friends. What she said to me that day will remain with me forever: "Don't be anxious. Don't get furstrated because you are not getting what you want. Wait for the mango to mature. It is not ripe yet".

I encourage you with the same.

Don’t stop believing.

x Princess Leona x

Ever Ever After

My favorite Disney character is Cinderella.

The fairy tale is for girls who dream of living happily ever after.

It is for girls who keep believing in their dreams and staying true to who they really are. They don’t allow external circumstances to change who they are and they always have faith for a better tomorrow.

Some people may call her passive and boring but I love Cinderella. She is genuinely kind and full of love for others. If we were to be her, who among us wouldn't have already poisoned the stepmother and her daughters? Or put broken glass in their food since she was the one doing all the cooking? Or suffocate them in their sleep? (I could be here forever to come up with additional ways to kill them!).

She could have set herself free by getting rid of them. But she didn't.

However, the reason Cinderella is my favorite Disney character is in the plot itself rather than a personal affinity with her character. She was a nobody, working as a slave in her own house. She was nothing special in the eyes of the people around her but she still held on to the hope that she could become somebody one day.

For one night she had the chance to be DIFFERENT. She wasn't a slave anymore. She was a beautiful woman. She was everything she always wanted to be and that she already was on the inside: STUNNING.

But here it comes: on the night of the ball, there were loads of girls at the party. Girls of different kinds, shapes and types. And if we talk about beauty, there must have been girls more beautiful than Cinderella. Despite the fact that we do not even know the Prince’s type, he still picked Cinderella. One can argue that this happened for the purpose of the story, but the prince could have still picked another girl. But Cinderella is the one that stood out. There was something about Cinderella that made her unique in the midst of ALL those women.

Really similar to her is the character of Esther in the Bible. Even though the reason she became queen was way higher than just a happy ending to a fairy tale, she was the chosen one among all the most beautiful girls of all the provinces in the kingdom of King Xerxes.

The reasons Esther and Cinderella were chosen among millions of women was beyond a physical beauty: there was something special and unique within them that had to do with their inner soul.

They were in perfect harmony with who they were. They might have been poor on the outside but they knew they were royalty on the inside. The kindheartedness and loyalty that define these women took them right into their destiny and through patient endurance and hope, they blossomed to become the beautiful queens they were always destined to be.

The lesson? No matter how insecure you might feel about yourself right now, on how you look or how far you have to go in life, remember to stay true to who you are. Let love be your first language and always be hopeful for a better tomorrow.

Lots of love,



X Princess Leona x

Happy New Year!!

Hi all,

Yes I know IT’S FEBRUARY but it’s still my first post of the year! :D Life can be really crazy sometimes and I had no chance to do this earlier. So apologies. :(

I hope everyone had an amazing start to the year, with lots of new prospects and higher expectations.

This year’s resolution for me is to keep my priorities straight. Keeping the main thing, the main thing. This year I want to focus on giving my all in athletics. My dream and ambition is to eventually represent my country, Italy, in international competitions. 2016 is my target. And the way to get there is taking one step at a time. It will take a lot of determination, commitment and perseverance but I know I will get there. :)

What are your resolutions for the year? What is that one thing you really want to focus on this year and see it become a reality?

Comment below and let me know. :)

Have a fantastic rest of the week. 

x Princess Leona x