Conversations with the Inspiring Hope Moquin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hope Moquin.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I think it takes us all a little while to find our niche. And I think that’s the whole point. As I’m sure many of you can relate, I grew up in a broken family. My whole life, especially in my early teenage years, I was neglected by my mother. I had no one to teach me how to be a woman and how to do things women are known to do. I was a child full of life but had nothing that widened my eyes and made me passionate. I never had an end goal or a some big “unrealistic” dream. Life was kind of something we just lived.

We would go to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. But that Christianity thing always seemed too religious. I would see these people who claimed to be a Christian turn out to be the worst kind of people and all of it seemed in-authentic. I felt lonelier around church people than I did around people outside of the church. I acted out in church and it grew to a point where I got kicked out of youth group, and I hated church so much my parents would pay me to come with them on Sunday mornings since I couldn’t go to youth anymore on Wednesday’s.

Because of feeling alone everywhere I seemed to be, at a young age I quickly found myself caught up in abusive relationships, drugs, and not respecting my body as a woman ought to. Before I knew it, I was a sixteen years old who was clinically depressed with no vision of what my life would look like in the years to come because I had no desire to live to see it through.

Friends was a foreign word to me because I never had many of them. I never found my group of people. Only the people who I used to get drugs or alcohol. In the tenth grade on Spring Break, I was sexually assaulted. And you remember High School… kids are cruel. I had a GPA under a 1.0 and was getting bullied about something that was out of my control so I dropped out.

I grew to have a hatred towards humanity and I believed that there was no belief. This Jesus guy couldn’t be real and people could never be lovable.

To make a long story short, I found myself at church one evening in tears. I experienced something I had never felt before. For the first time in my life, my eyes were widened and I felt my heart begin to leap. I felt a passion, and I couldn’t believe that my passion was for this Jesus guy. Days later, an intensive ministry program took me in at sixteen. I completed two years there, then moved and attended a ministry college for another two years when I was eighteen back at the church where I got kicked out of youth group. I now am twenty-two and have been working here coming up on two years as the Associate Director of Student Life.

Throughout my years of working at the church, I was once kicked out of youth group, discovering who I am and exploring different fields of interest – I can say that I have an end goal now and that I have a passion. I feel like I have lived through a lot of life, and that I have seen many different perspectives of life. For someone who use to hate humanity, I now dedicate my life to celebrating the lives of others and making people feel seen. For someone who used to make fun of Christians, I now live my life showing people how this God I never believed in gave me a future and changed everything.

This story the Lord has allowed me to walk through carries more weight than just a day to day conversation. Which is why I wrote a book and published it this past year. I just want to serve people and show up for people. This is a lonely world, you know? Self-centered, too. Especially with social media and watching as it almost controls our everyday lives. I wanted to make a presence there, too. Over the past year, I have personally grown my social media account from 3.0K to 11.5K by studying and applying what I had learned. I discovered a passion for online connectivity and adding value to those across the world who I may never be able to meet in person. Because of that passion, I created my own Online Media Mentorship Program where I mentor individuals from all different areas in a group together with the intent of making a big world feel smaller.

My story is messy, but I think it depicts the faithfulness of God and how He changed everything with just one touch. It doesn’t matter where you come from, who was in your life and who wasn’t. What you’ve done or what you do, He’s a God who meets you there.

Has it been a smooth road?
If it has always been a smooth road, then I don’t believe you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. There will always be bumps if you’re on the right road. What I have learned is that every bump I have encountered taught me something that is now vital in my day to day life for me to live out what I am called to do in its entirety.

In 2015, when I first started my blog, I didn’t have my first follower till a year later.

In 2016, when I decided I wanted to move back to the church, I was kicked out of attend their ministry college, I had some of my own family tell me I would never make it and I’m not supposed to be here. I had zero support and had to work three jobs, Uber everywhere because I didn’t have a car and maintain my commitment as a student all while trying to keep my emotional health stable because my family life was falling apart.

In 2018, I was so passionate about the concept of celebrating people that I started an online store of sweatshirts and had it up and running for a few months. However, due to unforeseen life circumstances, it was impossible for me to have the margin to keep it up and I had to close it down.

Between 2018 and 2019, when I began writing my book, I finished it twice. On two separate occasions, I deleted the entire thing. And I mean emptied the trashcan icon deleted it.

At the end of 2019, my mom walked out on our family which really kind of pressed paused on everything in all of our lives.

My journey has been a lot of highs and lows and a lot of redirecting my focus on the One who gave me my passions to begin with.

My advice for anyone who is just starting their journey would be this. Use your ache to stand you back up on your feet. A lot of times, when we experience hardship, pain, or letdown, it’s in our human nature to shrink back and unintentionally feel bad for ourselves. I’d encourage you to let your hardship be your intense motivation. Because hardship means you’re doing something right.

I’d say to any young woman to determine what you value and what you’re passionate about. When you know what you value, you will know what decisions to make. When you know what you’re passionate about, you will always know how to keep yourself on the right track when life comes knocking at you hard.

Give it all you have. Run full speed. Just keep going. Even if you trip a few times along the way, just keep going.

We’d love to hear more about Celebrate People.
Some may categorize me as an Instagram Blogger, but I like to see myself as rebranding the idea of authenticity. I started my blog and website in 2015 and gained an Instagram following from 3.0K to 11.5K in 2019. I have writing for six years now and the past three years, I have made my writings public in my posts. I keep my social media raw and honest. I talk about real-life things and I include my real-life feelings. I noticed in early 2018, the posts I was almost “too honest” in were the posts that were attracting the most engagement. Which goes to show that this world is really searching for one thing – authenticity.

On my Instagram, every so often, I am known for choosing someone to celebrate and writing about why. I have hosted multiple giveaways with the purpose of celebrating others and I am most proud as I have watched as it has made a global impact. I see girls who follow me all the way from Germany post about celebrating someone and it absolutely thrills my heart.

I believe my vulnerability and transparency sets me apart from other bloggers. That’s the most frequently asked question I receive is, “How are you so transparent without being scared of what people think?” That’s why I wrote my book, The Second Table.”

I wanted to push the line of what was “too honest” to share with the world. To put something out there that wasn’t polished and perfect. To put something out there that showed I haven’t always been where I am today and that I know what it’s like to be at the very bottom. I wanted to put something out there for the thirteen years old girl who feels like no one understands to show her that someone does. I wanted to put something out there for the sixteen years old who is depressed to show her that someone has been there, too. I wanted to put something out there for the eighteen years old who doesn’t know what to do with their life. I wanted to put something out there for the mom who is struggling. I wanted to put something out there for the young adult who is hurting.

I wanted to put something out there that would reach any heart because it’s a human heart. To share my story and to share about the One who wrote it, too.

Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
Of course. I firmly believe our childhood plays an extreme portion in how we function as adults. Some positive, some negative if not navigated through properly. As I briefly mentioned before, my whole childhood I was neglected by mother and I never had someone to teach me how to be a woman. My mother never worked and I watched for years as she would find her fulfillment in materialistic things while shopping.

I grew up basically an only child. Both of my parents had children from their first marriage but it was really just me growing up.

My feeling were always shut down when I younger and I learned to keep my feelings inside rather than talk about them because somehow my feelings were always “wrong”.

When I grew older, I used my childhood as my motivation to be better. I recognized how I didn’t have anyone to look up to as a female role model so I wanted to be a female role model for those who may have felt the same as me. I never had anyone show up for me as a child, so when I grew older, I wanted to show up for people who may have felt the same as me.

When I grew older, I wanted to put myself on the line of “too honest” to serve as a welcome mat for those who have been taught to keep quiet to share their feelings, too. Because they matter, too.

Everything I saw hurtful, pushed me to create a different experience for someone else.

Pricing:

• The Second Table – $15.99

Contact Info:

• Website: hopemoquin.com
• Email: hopemoquin24@gmail.com
• Instagram: hopemoquin
• Facebook: hopemoquin
• Twitter: hopemoquin

Image Credit:
Dillon Coke

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