Leslie Alvarez

I sort of have a “thing” for rules and excel spreadsheets!

I ❤️CAIs new merch!

This ring isn’t expensive.
It’s priceless.

I bought it for myself in 2008 as a Mother’s Day gift. Truthfully, I couldn’t really afford it then either. But it was on clearance, a “good deal,” and if you know me… I’ve never paid full price for jewelry in my life. Not even costume jewelry.

But here’s the thing…
I’ve bought this ring over and over and over again through the years.

Because I’ve pawned it more times than I can remember.

Sometimes to buy groceries.
Sometimes to make a car payment.
Sometimes to keep a roof over our heads.

And every single time, I fought to get it back.

My son still remembers going to the food bank when he was 6 or 7 years old. That kind of struggle leaves fingerprints on your memory.

People see success and think it happened overnight. They don’t see the nights spent moving money around praying a check clears. They don’t see the rolled coins. The sacrifice. The hustle. The fear.

I wrote an entire book about resilience and surviving hard seasons because I’ve lived them. I’ve spent my whole life figuring out how to turn pennies into nickels.

And to this day, I still never walk past a penny on the ground.

Because I know what it feels like when every single one matters.

This ring isn’t just jewelry.
It’s proof that no matter how many times life forced me to let go of something… I always found a way to come back for it.