WELCOME to a spectacular September — the ninth month of the year. September is considered the birthing month and we all should be looking forward to great things in our personal and professional lives.

One of the new programmes birthed in this season  as part of the Living with Intention Mission was MODEL IMAGE –Fashion the Future you.

We have various stages for this programme, but we commenced with the nine-16 category and some are from two orphanages. The main topics in the course will be confidence, elocution, deportment, etiquette and how to achieve your full potential. I must thank Richard, Caribbean Fashion Guru and Phillipa Morrish, President of Etiquette Training International for collaborating with me on this project.

To say I am immensely enjoying this group of young men and women is an understatement. Listening to them sharing their experiences, dreams and amazing goals for the future was so inspiring; we discussed failure and shared times when we failed and how we dealt with it. They expressed their surprise that I was a very shy young lady and failing in high school was just one of my many failures.
A few days ago I was feeling a bit exhausted and within a few minutes of me arriving in the

class, I was rejuvenated and the energy started to flow. That was an example that passion produces energy.

I smile every time one of the moms shares her story or the kids share some of the content from the class. The kids even tried testing their parents’ and peers’ dining etiquette skills.

These are a few of the things we covered in the etiquette session :
Should I always eat my french fries with my fingers?
1. What are condiments? Where should I place them on my plate?
2. How should I eat pizza?
3. How should I hold my teacup when I am drinking tea or coffee?
4. How should I eat a banana when served formally?
5. How should I pick grapes from a bunch when at dinner?
6. Where should you place your napkin when you are leaving the table temporarily?
7. On which side of your plate should you leave the napkin when your meal is finished?
8. When you are passing food around the dinner table, should you pass from the left or the right?
9. What position should the handle be when you are passing cups, gravy boats, etc?
10. When is it permissible for elbows to be on the table?
11. Is it proper etiquette to re-apply lipstick at the dinner table?
12. Should soup be spooned away or toward you?
13. Bread and rolls should be : (a) broken or (b) cut before eating.
14. Should toast be broken or cut before eating?
15. What is the “three-finger” rule? How does it apply to eating roti?
16. When I am served first, should I begin to eat?
17. Should butter be (a) placed directly on the bread from the butter dish or (b) first placed on a plate and then used to butter bread?
18. If the food in your mouth is too hot to swallow, what should you do?
19. My starting point for using silverware is from the (a) outside -coming toward the plate or (b) inside-going away from the plate.
20. My starting point for using glassware is from the glass (a) closest to my reach or (b) farthest from my reach.

According to feedback from the parents, the kids are so excited to come to the next class that some selected their outfits days before! Every session was super empowering and exciting and I can’t wait to see the results at the end of this programme.

If you need information on any of the programmes we are conducting, please message us on livingwithintention11@gmail.com

Contributing in a positive way to lives means so much to many of us and it is an awesome feeling.

Let us intentionally look around us on things we can do to improve lives as we celebrate this beautiful journey called life BEYOND THE RUNWAY.