In this personal monologue, Janae reflects on her upbringing as the eldest child of loving yet strict old‑school Christian Caribbean parents in Trinidad. She describes the disciplined environment shaped by religious and cultural expectations, her schooling journey through public primary school, a top secondary school, and an initial enrollment at Caribbean Nazarene College to study psychology—a path she abandoned after struggling academically. Janae then pivoted to creative media production, marketing, and eventually earned a Master’s in Business Management with a focus on International Marketing and Brand Management. Throughout, she emphasizes that practical experience outweighs formal credentials. Her mother, who recently earned a bachelor’s in theology, encourages Janae to prioritize spiritual formation, leading her to enroll in Bible school. Janae asserts that God uses worldly experience for kingdom purposes, positioning spiritual knowledge as the ultimate end‑goal.
Chapters
You know, my parents are very loving, so I've always been brought up in a very loving home. So despite the fact of them being very strict and stuff like that, because I have, like, I would say, like, in my words, old school Christian parents and Caribbean parents and where it's, you know, just by the books, especially me being first born. Right. So there was a lot of, you know, just like, the strictness and the standards to live by was really given to me. And even though at times it may have been like, ups and down, I'm still very thankful for that parenting. Because sometimes when you look back, you think about, okay, if my parents didn't do this, would I have still been Jeanette? You know? Right. So, yeah, I went through primary school. My sister's homeschooled, but my brother and I, we went to public school. I went to one of the best secondary schools in Trinidad. And then I went in. I remember enrolling into Caribbean Nazarene College, which telling my parents, oh, I think I'm called to be a psychologist, because all my friends tell them, tell me their problems. And my mom was like, okay, Janae, you remember that in order to be a psychologist, you have to listen, but, you know, you talk plenty, right? So I talk plenty. And she was 100% correct. I scraped through that, you know, and I didn't really excel so much in it, so I end up dropping out in that. But going into creative media production, then moving on with so many work experience, working in media, working with marketing, a lot of experiences with that, and then eventually doing my Masters in Business Management, elective in International Marketing and brand management. But that's just all the qualifications, worldly qualifications, you know, but I think experience really beat that big time. And something my mom says again, you know, she was like, you know, we all aim to do have that worldly qualifications, but she believes that you are to be qualified with God's word. And she has a lot of words in, let us say to say that, because she graduated with her bachelor's in theology just recently, but she encouraged me to enroll into Bible school. So I'm currently in Bible school, which I really motivate a lot of people that I sometimes I feel deep down inside like that should come first, you know, before everything. Because when we really tie into his end game, that's the knowledge that matters. But God uses our worldly experience for his kingdom excellence, something I'm very big on.
