Dustin

I grew up in a strict, faith-centered home — church every Sunday and Wednesday, structure, a dad who raised us to work for what we had. I strayed from that faith for a while, and a couple years ago it came back into my life full force, and it's the foundation everything else is built on now.

I work full-time managing a restaurant, raising my kids, and building something on the side with the help of AI because I want a different life for my family than the one the W2 alone can build. I'm not doing this from the other side of success looking back — I'm still in it, still fighting for my own first hour most mornings, which is exactly why I think it's worth documenting instead of hiding.

A few years back, someone close to me was going through a hard season and had stopped showing up — for himself, for his faith, for everything. When I finally helped clean out the place he'd been staying, buried under the mess, I found his Bible — untouched, sitting under a thin layer of dust the whole time. That image has stuck with me since. It's part of why I believe the climb back is always still there, no matter how buried it looks.