Being a mom, wife, advocate and a church servant isn’t easy but everything I do, I do it with love. I love to serve others and just be present for those in need. 

Learning to love myself has been the biggest obstacle in my life. Knowing I am enough just as I am has also been very hard in the past.

One year from now I hope I am more confident, self-assured and peaceful in knowing and serving in my purpose. This seems to have been my lifetime hope and still a work in progress. 

It is absolutely okay to ask for help so that you can focus on the aspects of work and life that only you can do.

Losing one of my senses was a devastating experience, and one that I had to work through while simultaneously raising small children and building a career for myself.

I am so much better at loving myself than I used to be, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t still something I struggle with at different points in time. 

I have a passion for helping people. Now working with drug court participants, it gives me great joy to see the light come on for a person who has struggled with addiction like I did. 

I’ve lived through things that broke me and I put myself back together and made beauty from the ashes I was left in. 

This might sound too idealistic, but I wish people would remember everyone is a human being with their own unique story. I find myself discouraged by the polarized society we live in, especially when I see people in our community at odds over certain issues.

I pray I continue to develop into a woman who loves herself without an ego that needs to be fed. I want to live this next year doing it afraid in order to achieve my calling and dream for my life.

A lot of my life I’ve been told I’m too much – Too loud! Too opinionated! Too! Too! Too! In third grade, my teacher told my mom to embrace my bossy attitude to make me a great leader. That was 30 years ago and I’m just now embracing that.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and it is easy to put our hope in the wrong things, which leads to disappointment, disillusionment, discouragement, and depression. Where we place our hope matters and my heart is to help foster a restoration of hope in our community and state. 

The biggest obstacle in my life has been recognizing that many beliefs I have had are not my own beliefs. Consistently choosing thoughts that align with my highest self was the most difficult conditioning I’ve experienced. 

I hope in a year I’m also giving more to myself, in the same way I give to others. I also hope I’m able to enjoy each and every day without worrying about the next day too much. 

By setting a solid example and demonstrating qualities like kindness, empathy and resilience, I hope to instill these values in my daughter, helping her grow into a responsible, driven and compassionate individual.

I hope to continue to grow in my own healing. I hope to lead from a place of wholeness so that the young people who I lead get to experience the things I needed as a child – a place of stability and belonging. 

I am a gritty person. Grit isn’t necessarily something that can be built or learned, it’s just an innate sense to persevere. I am not afraid to face a challenge and for the most part, I can see the glass half full while I’m doing it.

Things will never go as I planned, but I have the opportunity every single day to choose to be happy and see the positive, or to be stuck in my own pity and anger.

When I was in the thick of the newborn days with my daughter, I was talking to my Mema about the struggles I was having. Our baby rarely slept and cried so much and the nights were so long and hard. I remember her looking at me and saying, “Nothing ever stays the same for long.” 

Anya is a broker/owner of her own real estate firm, which is hard work on its own, but her wild capability lies in her advocacy and her heart. She is on the board for the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Association of Realtors, she lobbies at the capitol and uses her platforms to educate the community about what’s happening in Oklahoma that impacts housing accessibility.