Hailey B. | Life Inspired Portrait Project
It is my pleasure and honor to present to you… the absolutely gorgeous, Hailey! She’s the first of many to be featured for my Life Inspired portrait project. You can get all the details for this project here: Life Inspired Details And if you’d like to nominate yourself or someone you know, contact me today!
Hailey is a beautiful person, both inside and out. I first met her last Spring for a photo shoot and was so happy she was up for being a part of this project. You get the impression when you first meet her that she's got this fierce determination and that she'll definitely master whatever she puts her mind to... She's currently renovating her house and is available for interior design work, so if you have any projects you're needing help with, she's the one to call!
For this Life Inspired project, I’m asking each person the same series of questions to bring out their stories. So, without further ado, here is Hailey's story.
When did you realize that your life was being held back by fear or self-doubt, and what kept you from moving forward? When I was 16 I broke my back in a roll over car accident. I never knew it at the time but I had two choices, give up or move forward. My life was no doubt stressful and full of challenges and at first I gave up. From relearning how to walk and adapt with this “new body” to ruining family relationships and moving out at the age of 17, I hated everyone including myself. I was a joke and the “troubled child.” I was living and paying rent to people I met on Craigslist, working full time, going to high school, and graduating with honors. But what was I going to do now? Just like most people, comfortability and prolonged stress kept me from moving forward. I was in a toxic relationship but never knew it because I was too young and thought that was the only thing there was out there. My confidence level was jacked because he never believed in me, and I didn’t either.
What triggered you to no longer live a life of fear or self-doubt? That’s where Montana came into the picture. Oh Montana, a beautiful place where I knew nothing and no one. My first year of college was a rush. I had a huge cultural shock and reality check. I was discovering who I was for the first time in my life. I woke up weighing 205 pounds with no confidence in my ideas and beliefs. That’s where I chose to move forward, to stop pitying myself and developing excuses for why I can’t push myself to the next level and strive to be successful.
What did you have to let go of in order to take the leap to move forward? I needed to let things go and create a completely blank slate to be a better, confident, inspirational version of myself. I broke up with my boyfriend of three years who repetitively cheated on me, chopped my hair off, lost 45 pounds, and became the girl that was silenced inside for so long. I was living. After my first and second year of college I started evaluating my life. How can I thrive and get ahead at such a young age of freshly 20 years old? Buying a house was such a silly idea at the time and I was half-heartedly “shopping” around when I spotted her…Big Blue. I crunched the numbers and evaluated the profitability and it all made sense. So I did it, I signed my name on the dotted line, all by myself with no one else. I had almost every person doubt me and call me crazy, but now I set the example for how far you can go at an early age if you don’t limit yourself to what you “think” you can’t do. All I had to do was let go of the fear I had of investing my life and future into one object and acknowledge the positive in what I was about to do. We all win and we all lose, but if you don’t play then you just lose. Once I believed in myself I realized the things that I loved most were the ones that kept me inspired and moving forward.
What did you find on the other side of fear that made it worth it? By pushing through the fear and playing the game I have that chance of winning the life I dreamt of. If a person never tries to push through their fears then all they’re doing is waking up, walking through their same boring life, sleeping and dreaming of the life they could have, and waking up to do it all over again.
What would you tell someone (or your former self) who still feels held back by fear or self-doubt? To anyone who wants their dream life, I’d say shop around, don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice, and test your limits because sometimes success is not about your dignity but about the opportunity.
