Models?

Who do you appreciate in your daily life? Who inspires you in your day to day? Who do you look to role model the type of person you are working to become?

There are many people in our lives who posses honor. People who posses courage. People who elude confidence, people who elude kindness, people who elude service. Today I want to talk about a few of these people.

One of those people is a good friend of mine, Molly Kinman. Molly is a woman that embodies so many of the qualities I wish to develop in myself. This woman is a fighter. Life has attacked her in some of the most ruthless ways. In ways, that would devastate me and break me. Adopted at birth, she grew up feeling different and dissatisfied with life. Molly faced addiction to meth and heroin at an early age. After going through rehab and getting sober, she walked into her home one day to find her mother dead from a single self-inflicted gun wound. After her mothers suicide, Molly has fought through all of it.

She has not let life defeat her. Instead, she has used all of her battles to propel her into a whole new life. She is creating a life of fullness, a life of purpose, a life of meaning. Not only is she sharing her stories with the world, but she is following and accomplishing all of her dreams. Today she is a UC Davis alumni, Certified Dog Trainer, and enrolled in grad school. She specializes in helping people who suffer from PTSD and other mental health, find healing through animals.

Another person I really admire is a gentleman named Cesar Silva. Cesar is another fighter, Ceasar is another go-getter. This man has also known devastation and heartache. As a teen, he ran the streets and fell into the gang life. Crime, drugs, and disaster were all he knew. At the young age of 14, he was gunned down by a rival gun member. He was left for dead. Somehow, he survived. A year later, his baby brother was murdered right before his eyes. Seeking revenge, he was gunned down again a few months later. after many years of agony, Cesar found his spirituality and began to change his life.

He has not allowed his experiences to get the best of him. He hustles hard. He works with many fashion and lifestyle companies around Los Angeles. He also travels and documents his adventures to inspire others. He makes me want to hustle hard. One of the most beautiful things about Cesar is his attitude and energy. He is the kind of person people want to be around. Genuine, friendly, funny, confident, creative, intelligent. All qualities I wish to further develop.

Finally, there is a distant friend that I follow daily. I check her social media regularly to feed my soul. I enjoy seeing her beauty, and feeling her essence. This distant friend is a woman I used to attend high school with. In high school, we were both very different people, and I dont think we ever cared much for one another. Ashley was saved by God from a lifestyle of darkness and abuse. At an early age, she began stripping and eventually started an escort service, selling young women to anyone who would pay. It was not long after that she found herself captive by her pimps and a victim of sex-trafficking. This woman is Miss Ashley Trevino. After finding God in a stip club dressing room, and escaping her captors. She too, changed her life.

Ashley is a strong, determined, woman of God. She embodies what it means to walk in the path of God. Since the moment I reconnected with her through social media, I have watched closely how she walks hand in hand with God to build her empire, and through her empire, spread the message of God. Ashley has purpose. Today she owns her own bridal boutique, and travels the country speaking out against sex-trafficking, and saving women through her faith.

Watching her flourish into a leader in the community, and a leader in our generation, and a leader for her movement, inspires me each and every day to follow my own purpose.

Now I would like to ask you to think a little bit about who inspires you? Who are your role models? For those of us who have children, its seems that now-more than ever, it is crucial we teach our children to look up to people of character, people of true value. Television, Media, and entertainment rarely teach us to value people of substance. We are taught to value surface rather than depth. I enourage all of you to share your role models in your day to day lives. Lets take initative to build each other up, and look to our peers for inspiration and motivation!

#rolemodelssurvivorshustlersfightersdreams