We recently connected with Alicia Azahar and have shared our conversation below.
Alicia , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I’ve gone through several traumatic situations in my life: the death of my mother, molestation, physical abuse from an ex-boyfriend, job lay-offs, car repossession, and losing my place of living. All of these events I experienced were hard, but I knew I did not want to be a victim for the rest of my life. So I decided not to be one. I knew I had to take back control over my life and not allow those situations to dictate my future. Through the help of my faith in God, family, friends, my husband and children, they all in their own way gave me the courage to fight each day to be a better person. I had two choices in life: to give up or give in. I gave up that negative mindset of everything that happened to me and adopted the mindset of how I could use my pain for a bigger purpose!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a creative, an author, teacher, mentor, actress and model. In other words, I free lance by doing any and everything I can in the creative world. Whether it’s teaching a Social & Emotional Intervention class on Wednesdays at the local high school, acting in commercials, videos, or short films, modeling for different photo shoots, writing a poetry book, performing at Open mic nights, speaking at different events or writing short stories, I do it all. The most exciting thing about being a creative is the creative process. There are so many people, places or things that I draw inspiration from that fuels my creativity. I don’t like to put myself in a box when it comes to my style because I just go with the flow. My biggest motivation behind creating is to spark thought, enlighten my readers, but most of all spread love and positivity through each message. If you follow me on social media, I occasionally post new projects or events that I have coming up or have recently done.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most impactful skills, qualities or knowledge in my journey would be: learning how to adapt, accepting rejection and embracing my uniqueness. In anything that I’ve done past or present, I’ve had to adapt to the each situation. Whether that was getting use to a new schedule, working with different people, learning a new skill for a specific job or going out of town to work, I had to adapt to the situation. It wasn’t always easy, but it helped build my character. Learning to embrace rejection was a big one for me, because just like anyone, I don’t like rejection. I learned that the more “no’s” I heard, it actually fueled me to either want to get better or accept that not everything or everyplace is meant for me to be. That in turn, helped build my confidence and understanding of life and people. Embracing my uniqueness helped me not only appreciate who I was created to be, but it allowed me to use my individuality to help people along the way.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was teach me how to pray and not give me everything. Prayer has been an essential part of my life because when I didn’t know who else to turn to, I knew I could call on God. It has helped me through so many difficult situations because I know God is real and so is the power of prayer. Also, by my parents not giving me everything, it made me work that much harder for the things I wanted in life. It taught me a great work ethic and made me strive for greater!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: uninterrupted_thoughts
- Facebook: Alicia Azahar
Image Credits
Gilbert Azahar
