Leilani Thomas

Hi, my name is Leilani Camille Thomas, Lani for short; I have two older sisters, Leah (22) and Ny'asia(20). (I am only a year behind the second oldest, but we graduated simultaneously, so paying for college is a real tightrope for us.)I was born on September 26, 2004, in the middle of Hurricane Ivan. Being born prematurely was not easy on a family; they would always tell me that they thought I was not going to make it due to me not eating and being able to breathe on my own and when I finally got to leave the hospitable two weeks later, I was back in the hospital for having an asthma attack in my sleep, and I stayed there for an extra two months. Since I was born prematurely, I thought that I was always going to be small and not gain any weight with lousy asthma, which made me think that I was just weak. I had that type of mindset until I started cheering at MCYFL for the first time. I felt alive, and all the negativity I had about myself was why I felt weak. After taking that leap of confidence, I started to be more active and started to build my body up and love myself, but once I got to middle school, I started hating myself because my body did not look like the other girls around me and everyone would bully me for being too muscular and having a deep voice. I wanted to give up, but I found confidence in myself when I saw Angela Bassett in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It." Seeing her made me love myself and put my body to great use. I became an athlete at Lake Weir High School. I played Volleyball, cheer, weightlifting, track field, and flag football. I also played basketball my first year at Forest but didn't have an enjoyable experience with the team. Some majors caught my attention, but my main ones are building construction and architecture due to my love of creating contemporary designs and making people happy with what I create. Next is international business. I want to learn how everything works in various parts of the world, how they run their business, and how we can build a strong empire. The last is becoming an obstetrician doctor and owning my hospital, which only has female nurses.