Wendy Rae Wiltshire- Vicary

I always wake up with an attitude of gratitude, and I'm very present in life. I approach each day with an open mind and an open heart, and I just try to use that day to the best of my ability and bring people hope - maybe my story can influence them, maybe my story can help people. My attitude has changed so much, but my attitude is an attitude of gratitude at all times. Because quite frankly, if you wake up breathing, you have a purpose here, and if you just allow that day to show you what that purpose is and you do the best you can in that day, it kind of takes away the pressures and the emotional roller coasters that you could get caught up on if you let every little thing back you off. Life is hard, but you can overcome it every day when you stay focused and just stay grateful. I've been a survivor since I got here on this planet, I do have a unique story, and I've just always got up. Like, just get up, and just keep going. No matter how tired you are, you can get up, you can do it. Even if you don't think anyone's watching, people are watching, and your story is a testimony that can inspire and help other people.

I want the next generation of women to understand that just because we may have been told one thing, we can do absolutely anything that we put our minds to, and we can overcome everything. If you think about it, everyone's had a 100% success rate of surviving every bad day they never thought they'd make it through. I don't think as women we give ourselves as much credit as we should. I would let my younger self know that she's doing an awesome job - keep going. She's loved, she's supported, you always get a brand new day, and you can basically overcome anything. I've just always got up. Like, just get up, and just keep going. No matter how tired you are, you can get up, you can do it. Don't ever think that you can't achieve what you want to achieve. It may not be on the timeline that you think it should be on, but it definitely can be achieved. You achieve things in your life exactly when you should, when you were destined to achieve them. You may think that you want to be the CEO of a company at a certain age, when in reality, you're not emotionally equipped to be able to handle a responsibility that big. You have to grow, and you have to learn, and you have to fall down, and you have to get back up. We have to give back to ourselves - put your oxygen mask on first before you assist anyone else. We ignore that rule every single day, and we're constantly trying to fill others up - how are we filling people up from an empty cup? When we pour into ourselves first, the power in that is just extraordinary, because we can then see the fruits of our labor, we can then see how our abundance is overflowing into everyone else around us.

I feel that now is the time. A lot of women are waking up, and they're breaking these old programs, and they're coming out of this slumber, and they're realizing, hey, this world is my oyster also. It's not just - I'm not just this mom, I'm not just this person. I think we've been told our whole entire life certain things about where we fit in and who we are, and I decided that I was going to break every glass ceiling that there ever was to get back to living life to the fullest. I don't think the world would operate the way that it does if it wasn't for the women of the world. There are so many women out there that are just waiting, maybe, or just stuck. I don't want anyone to give up hope, I don't want anyone to count themselves out because their situation that they're in right now looks like maybe something they never thought it would look like. Maybe they feel alone, or maybe they feel like they're not being seen. I want every woman to be seen and to know that they're important too. I don't want anyone to ever get in a place of darkness where they're losing hope in themselves because they're not seen, or they're not heard, and they're not feeling like they're important.

Being present in every moment is incredibly important to me. I approach each day with an open mind, an open heart, and an attitude of gratitude at all times. I believe that if you wake up breathing, you have a purpose here, and if you just allow that day to show you what that purpose is and you do the best you can in that day, it takes away the pressures. My main focus and main goal is to help people be the best version of themselves and make the world a better place just by being kind to people, because life is hard and people just want to be seen and encouraged. I want to help women feel seen and know that they're important. After my son passed away, I had a whole new outlook on life and day-to-day living, and I decided that I was going to break every glass ceiling that there ever was to get back to living life to the fullest. I'm not one for recognition - I'm more for let's help whoever we can. If I can just help one woman feel seen in her day, I've accomplished a lot. I want every woman to be seen and to know that they're important too, because my story is unique and I've been fighting since I was born to be here.