David Sledge Jr., is the creator and founder of The Love Project Collective, based out of San Diego, California. He created this movement following a challenging experience in his life in hopes that he could lead and encourage others to loving themselves so that they can live a life filled with happiness and true abundance.
In the Summer of 2016 David went through a traumatic experience that would forever change his life and lead him to where he is today. He left Pensacola that morning and much like his other trips on the greyhound, this one was fairly uneventful and enjoyable. David had no reason to think this day would be any different than the others. He arrived at the Greyhound bus station in Tallahassee, Florida and after getting off the bus and walking towards his girlfriend, everything changed. (15) U.S Marshals ambushed him with assault rifles and handguns and in that moment he felt his heart stop. David dropped what was in his hands as he tried to remember everything his father had taught him about interacting with law enforcement. In this moment, survival felt impossible. The minutes felt like hours as one of the U.S. Marshals grabbed David’s hand and guided to the pocket where his dependent military ID was located. Once his identity was verified, the situation immediately changed, but in that moment, David’s life did as well. This experience happened to him at a time in his life where his self-love and self-worth were already low. David was spiraling into negative habits while trying to mask his pain and hurt through drinking.
He hated looking at himself in the mirror. But he realized that he needed to change because everything David touched started to become negative. He had to find a way to love himself and fight his way through trauma. He started going to therapy, affirming himself daily and learning how to forgive himself. Through his own personal self-love journey he realized that he was in charge of his own personal self-love journey he realized that he was in charge of his own healing and that the trauma he experienced doesn’t define who he is but is part of his story. David realized life was too short not to live in happiness and wanted to help people to truly love who they are no matter what they experience.