Meet Cassandra “cassie” Karch

We recently connected with Cassandra “cassie” Karch and have shared our conversation below.

Cassandra “Cassie”, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

Optimizing through optimism

The year is 2006 and I am a single mother of 5 working at my uncle’s locksmith shop. My only goal at the time was to own a home and provide something with longevity for my kids, in case anything happened to me. I started meeting with a real estate agent and shortly after was approved for an 80/20 home loan. At the time, I didn’t realize that this was predatory in nature, and I should have never been approved because I didn’t qualify, but the loan company pushed it through anyway. We got the house, but I would soon realize that this “favor” they did for me would aid in my downfall. Fast forward to the beginning of 2008, during the housing crisis, I was laid off. I had to empty my retirement funds to make my payments and depleted it. When I reached out to my mortgage company for help, they told me that because I always paid on time, they couldn’t help me, which made absolutely no sense. What I thought was going to be our forever home, went into foreclosure and I thought it was the end of the road for us. During this time, I was extremely stressed, and it was extremely hard to see the light while being in such a dark space. I started applying for apartments and continuously got turned down, but I kept trying. Eventually there was one apartment that said yes, and they took a chance on me and my family, and even though it wasn’t our forever home, it would become a home that would help many people. Because of my faith in God and leaning onto my favorite scripture of Romans 8:28, we were okay. My optimism was low at the time, and I didn’t see a way out but looking back, this experience gave me such a testimony and allowed me to grow into a space of continual optimism. Because of this experience and leaning into my faith, 5 years later I was approved for another mortgage loan, and a good one and have been living in our forever family home for 11 years.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I like to call myself an encourager. I am a self published author, a writer, a social media personality and a mentor. I enjoy reading, writing and performing poetry and spoken word all over Washington. What I find to be the most exciting part about what I do, is the responses I get from people. Whether it’s from someone who read my blog, listened to me perform or bought a copy of my book, hearing peoples feedback brings me life. I have been told countless times that my art makes people feel seen. Performing my art brings me a sense of peace and each time I am able to share a part of my story, I feel like a layer of my onion is being peeled back and I become freer through each piece. I also write a weekly blog, which has become therapy to me and it allows my readers to understand my thought processes and hopefully help them through their own life situations. I am currently writing my second book and have a release date goal of December 2024-January 2025. I am a youth girls mentor, and it has become one of my greatest joys. It allows me to be the person I needed and it is important for me to give back to my community in that way. I find happiness in sharing my authentic, goofy personality on social media but also sharing the serious and important life lessons I’ve learned to possibly help someone else.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

For me, the three things that were the most impactful along my journey were reading, writing and the art of learning. I have always loved to read. This could be a self help book, biography, autobiography or even history book. I feel like reading helps me improve who I am as a person and allows me to learn overall history about others. This has been a thing for me for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I used reading to help me keep my head above water and because of that I won a TV in elementary school. Along with this, writing and poetry have also been a part of my life. I kept journals as a youth, filled with poems and later returned to the art as an adult. Learning as much as I could was essential for my growth and it allowed me to finish two years in one while I was in high school.

If I could give advice to anyone reading this, it would be to never give up your quest for knowledge because it is power. Be open to those who want to give you constructive criticisms and never stop working on yourself. Set goals that you are excited to work toward because those will be the stepping stones to achieve your dreams. Even if you’re in the second half of your life, like me, as long as you have breath in your body and a fight in your spirit, you can always keep pressing forward.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

My biggest area of growth and improvement has been loving myself in the fullness of who I am. Everyday I learn more about myself and have implemented speaking positive affirmations over myself, my family and my situation. At one point in life, I could not look myself in the mirror, and my self esteem was extremely low. I didn’t like the person I saw, and if I didn’t look at her, I didn’t have to face her. Now, I look at myself all the time. I keep mirrors around the house and make sure to write “you are beautiful” on them as a daily reminder. I know that I am a beautiful creation, made by God himself and I was born for such a time as this. I am supposed to be here and I am here to share this person with others. I am more patient with myself and others and I do my best to sit with myself and not make hasty decisions. I listen to myself more and that has helped me trust that I know who I am and no one can take that away from me. The person who I was before would be proud of the person I am today.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Where does your optimism come from?

Optimism is the invisible ingredient that powers so much of the incredible progress in society

Confidence
Stories of Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Learning from one another is what BoldJourney is all about. Below, we’ve shared stories and

Resilience
The Power of Persistence: Overcoming Haters and Doubters

Having hates is an inevitable part of any bold journey – everyone who has made