Today we’d like to introduce you to Fabi Payton.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story is simple. I just wanted to help. I had no plan of doing everything I have done. I just wanted to do more and help my community come closer together as I could. What I had and could give was my insight and ideas and so I did just that. I attended a community forum to listen to community leaders, and I heard the struggles voiced by Bryan Police Chief Eric Buske when it came to building relationships within the community, and I felt led to share some of my own ideas. Chief Buske invited me to meet with him and the assistant police chiefs, who welcomed me warmly. They listened to my ideas and took a bold leap of faith to step out of their comfort zones. Together, we tried some very new ways to build relationships with the community we served, and I Heart Bryan was born. Soon after, I realized that the relationship-building spread well beyond working with Bryan PD, and forward I went to build those relationships everywhere I could.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. At the beginning, many people didn’t take me seriously and I was scared of what others would say and think but after our first event, a lady shared how much having the conversation with the officer changed her life, and her tearful gratitude grew my courage miles high and off I went wanting to do more to help. Looking back, I lost so many friends and my family was unsure of all my endeavors. Few understood my pure intentions and fewer would help me take the message forward. Everywhere I went or called I had to be ushered in by someone at Bryan PD to be taken seriously. People really didn’t know what to make of a girl who made a whole logo proclaiming her love for her small town. And when I talked about changing the visual culture of our community through the use of the logo, they looked at me as though I spoke Mandarin. There were few flickers of light in the beginning. I was just treading forward hoping that the light I was carrying would spread throughout my community somewhere I just couldn’t see yet.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a teacher. I love being a teacher! I am mostly known as a very engaging math teacher. But I am also known as the teacher that makes magic and the impossible happen in her classroom every day. I’ve been known to pull some fun and nearly impossible stunts. My teacher specialty, however, is building relationships. That’s where knowing how to do what I Heart Bryan did and is doing came about. Being a teacher and helping my students achieve what they believe is impossible is what I am most proud of. Being a teacher is what sets me apart from most community activists. Activism takes an enormous amount of time, and so does teaching. No one could have ever imagined I could have made it all work, but I did. I am often asked if I have to choose, which will I choose and I don’t think I should ever have to. Both things are good and beneficial to my community so I would hope my community would rise up to support me and be able to do both as long as I am able to.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I hate to call anything bad luck or good luck. I have taken the good, and the bad of whatever came my way. I do everything I can to see the good in every bad or turn every bad into good. And when I get the good? I strive to make it better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.iheartbryanevents.com
- Instagram: iheartbryantexas
- Facebook: @iheartbryantexas
- Twitter: #IHeartBryan
- Other: https://linktr.ee/iheartbryan
Image Credits
Jacklyn Nacianceno (Team picture in denim and white)
