Gaye Walton-Price, PhD

I attribute my success to persistence and a commitment to never giving up. This principle has guided me throughout my personal and professional journey, especially when pursuing meaningful goals and long-term aspirations. While I acknowledge my moments of weakness and human imperfection, I remain focused on consistency and resilience as the driving forces behind my growth. I did not always expect my path to lead me from becoming an Arabic educator to now serving as a wedding officiant, but I continued to pursue opportunities, adapt, and stay committed to my goals despite uncertainty and change.

Never give up. I think that works for life as well, not just career things, but personal things. That's really my personal motto. Especially when you have a dream about something, you have a goal, you have something you really want to achieve, you have to work at it. Of course, I get weak sometimes, I get forgetful, and I have human frailties, but I think that one keeps me going.

For education, I have to say I'm a little disillusioned by education nowadays. Looking back over my academic career, I feel that teachers and people that are educators are not as valued in our society as they need to be. We work so hard, we're dedicated, and it's sometimes hard to make a living if you're totally dedicated to being a teacher, to being an instructor. It's not as valued as it needs to be in our society. I would say for some young person who is going into education, just be aware of the pitfalls. But definitely do what you love. I wouldn't trade that for anything. In the wedding industry, I feel like I'm a novice and I'm learning every day, so I have to be open and curious and ready to try something new. Being a creature of habit, my tendency is to want to cling to what I know and what I've done. But especially nowadays, things are moving rapidly so far in advance. I think we need to just be open and have something we can trust in. For me, it's my faith. I have a strong faith, and it's getting stronger, because a lot of what we see happening in the world is chaos. So I rely on something true and something good that I know is within me, and is within all people, that we have to really remember to focus on that.

The biggest challenges are making my way, finding the best opportunities, and deciding what to do that can help further my career, because I don't have a big organization around me supporting me, so I'm on my own. I have to network and find people, make connections with more and more people. As a budding entrepreneur, I feel like I have so much to learn still, but I enjoy what I'm doing, so any new outlet where I can make connections with people and move along, move forward, learn more and more is going to be valuable for me at this stage.

I value integrity as the foundation of both my personal and professional life, and I consider honesty to be a key part of that standard. These principles guide how I make decisions, how I interact with others, and how I approach my responsibilities. I believe that maintaining integrity and being truthful builds trust and consistency, which are essential in everything I do.