“There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstance of your life can change! There is a truth deep down inside of you that has been waiting for you to discover it, and that truth is this: you deserve all good things life has to offer.” – The Secret.

The Book The secret was a catalyst for change in my life. Before that, I didn’t know I could become the master of my faith, the captain of my soul. You see, I lived a life that was mapped out for me; by the cult I lived in, the cult leader, and my family. However, my life wasn’t always that way…

I had what I thought was the perfect childhood. I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. As a little kid, my parents would take us to beach resorts almost every weekend. My best memories as a kid were of my brother Kris and me. We would swim for hours, and then go to dinners with my family and cousins, and I would dance nonstop in the evenings as the musicians performed their live music.

When I was nine, we moved to Dallas, Texas. My parents were entrepreneurs and they had a bridal business. My mom was the designer and my dad, the brains behind the business. They bought a beautiful house in Irving, Texas, in a gated community called Hackberry Creek. It was a spacious four bedroom house on a golf course, with access to the golf course right from our backyard.

I loved our new life in America. It was everything I had dreamed of and saw in the American movies I’d watched as a little kid growing up in Thailand. We even had a white Christmas like the Christmas movies I watched!

We lived what I thought was a perfect life, that is, until I turned ten. My oldest brother, eighteen at the time, dropped my mom off to the airport for her flight to Thailand, and I never saw her again; not for the next two years at least. Instead of getting on the flight, she abandoned us.

Everything changed for the worst after that. My dad flew us to Thailand and dropped us at a religious community, more of a cult I’d call it. My dad and everyone at the religious community brainwashed us to believe that my mother was a sinner who ran away with another man. My ten- year-old heart broke for my mom. I felt lost and broken, and every emotion from hurt to anger, from sadness to pain.

The religious community has a religious leader. This leader has millions of followers all over the world. They worship him like God, with people bowing down to him for help, to pray and even to confess. He started molesting me when I turned twelve. He convinced me that I was a sinner just like my mother. That I was special and because he loved me, he would wash away my sins. I believed every single word he said, and the molestation went on for years.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, around the same age of twelve, he got me engaged to be married. To none other than his nephew, who was eighteen at the time. I was married for twelve years before I reached a breaking point.

I was introduced to the book The Secret. It completely disrupted everything I knew and planted seeds of greatness in my mind. Those seeds began to germinate, and my mindset changed dramatically. I started practicing gratitude, started thinking positive thoughts, started getting hungry for more in life, started believing that I am victorious, and that I could achieve anything I set my mind to.

Slowly but surely, my life started to change, and I started manifesting events and angels into my life that would help me escape.

September 3rd, 2012 is the day I will never forget. I had a window of four hours when everyone would be away from home. With the help of two angels I met by coincidence (who are now my best friends), I packed my things, stuck a note on the door, took my then eleven year old son with me, ran away and never looked back.

I was scared for my life after that and the threats didn’t stop. I changed my phone number, switched cars with my friend and had so many locks on my apartment door it was crazy. They are powerful and I was scared they would take my son away from me. The only thing that kept me sane was nourishing my mind with spiritual and self help books, and listening to positive messages all day long.

Les Brown was one of the main motivational speakers I listened to that resonated with me. I didn’t know who he was at first. I had gotten free tickets to a Les Brown seminar from work soon after I ran away from home. He was speaking to the crowd, but I felt like he was talking directly to me.

Today, I am a White House Presidential Journalist and I’ve traveled overseas to report as part of the Obama Administration.

People have asked me why I wanted to become a journalist and my response has always been “I wanted to follow in Oprah’s footsteps.” For as long as I can remember, she’s been my idol. She is the reason I went back to school to become a journalist.  I have a picture of her on my vision board and am eagerly awaiting the day when I not only meet her, but the day she becomes a part of my life.

Had I not been hungry for more and took a leap of faith, I would still be living a life of unhappiness, pain and abuse. It all changed when I changed my mindset. The day I shifted my thinking and started focusing on the good instead of my life’s misfortunes, my life made a drastic shift. What excites me everyday is the thought of inspiring, transforming and empowering women and men worldwide. To be an agent for change as I shed a light on constraints facing women and girls around the world. People think wanting a lot of money is selfish. I tell them they have it backwards. Wanting money is selfless, because the way I look at it, when you have enough money to take care of your own needs, and the needs of those close to you, you can then forget about yourself completely and focus your time, energy, money and resources on the needs of the world. Life is to be lived in abundance because abundance is our birthright. If there is anything you can takeaway from my life story, I want you to get that you can truly get and become everything you envision in your life. I was raised in a cult and lived a life where I wasn’t allowed to even think for myself. But look at what a change of thinking and believing got me. I’ve manifested and am living out my greatest desires.

I want to end by quoting my mentor, “Other people’s opinion of you does NOT have to become your reality.” – Les Brown