We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Samoya Shannae a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Samoya, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I developed resilience from a young age of surviving childhood abuse in my foster home and having to navigate through life on the streets of South Central on my own without the protection of an adult. I had to stand up for myself and create my own voice and it’s something that I carried with me throughout my life.I’ve been through a lot of different struggles in life that also made me stronger but I do feel like my childhood was my first steppingstone to strength and finding out just how resilient I was.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m a woman of many hats. Im a poet since I was about 7 years old. I recently got back into my craft and recorded and released my first spoken word EP called “Cracks in my Halo”. I take you on a small journey into a glimpse of the pain I had to endure as well as the healing that made me who I am today. A dope first project and I love it! But my biggest joy is the motivational speaking. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years and it is something passionate about. I love bringing to the table not only my story but tools, knowledge, and wisdom to help people overcome the things that I too had to suffer through and come out of. I have a huge love for the youth mostly And I will do anything to change your life. When you come from where I’m from and seeing the things that you seen and been through what I’ve been through it’s kind of hard not to have compassion for our youth these days who have a lot harder than us. I love working with them and I especially love going to alternative schools and working with them. I have been known motivate them and stimulate them enough to wear they are empowered after we speak and they turn it around and go back to their public school. Those success stories Are the highlight to my life to my purpose. It’s like the kryptonite I need to keep going to make a difference. I also have a nonprofit called power after the pain that’s been in good standing for about 10 years also. I started out as a victims advocate. I helped women leave domestic violence relationships and got them help. I even started my own clothing closet where I took donations to give to women and children who were flinging. I even housed the victims of my home after getting up in the middle of the night to go get them. Which is crazy I know because it’s a dangerous situation but I have such a heart for it as I’m a survivor. I’m also an author of a published book that I published about seven years ago. I currently am working on my life story which will be dropped hopefully by my birthday which is May 17. And I have some other books being created as well that I will use in my workshops to help people with healing. I have a cried out girl event Happening in September. I’m still trying to secure a place in Texas hopefully Dallas or San Antonio and I’m hoping to get sponsors so that it’s a free event. This event will be a safe place for women to come and cry it out. Meaning we’re going to address trauma And be a support for those who need to at least begin the processing stage which is saying this happened to me I’ve been holding it in and I need to let it go. I survived my own suicide attempt back in November 2022. I remember feeling so broken alone with no safe to cry it out. I’d like to think that if I had that place or person to release Maybe I wouldn’t have attempted suicide that day. I’m praying for this to be a successful event so that it could be annual and then quarterly. I believe God‘s hand is all over it and I can’t wait. If I have it my way the location and the food will be sponsored so that people can attend and I don’t have to charge. And of course I’m looking for volunteers just to be the arms that are needed for those who are coming to release. I plan on launching a zoom class that support suicide attempt survivors, and those suffering from trauma. I have a few things going this year but they all are about healing. I can’t wait to see what God uses me for this year.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say that knowing who you are and only who you are was the most impactful area of knowledge I I possessed during my journey. You have to learn that you are not your experiences. Sure you can be impacted by them, taught by them, and shaped by them but to take ownership over things that you go through after learning the lesson is not healthy. You have to know your worth and spite of struggles and hardships even if they come from bad decision-making. The advice I would give to those early in their journey is give yourself grace. Give yourself room to grow keep self-esteem and check and always get back up again no matter how many times you fall fail means first attempt in learning. Be easy on yourself. And never eat the same thing twice. All that means is never make the same mistake more than once. Get the lesson grow from it and move on. The longer you sit harping on things the more you’re holding yourself back from growth. And also I will say always choose you first. Don’t put other people before you as you’re growing and working test establish yourself. The moment you start doing that it becomes too easy to lose sight of who you are and once you lose of who you are life becomes harder. But most of all keep your trust in God above all
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
My biggest area of growth the past 12 months would be learning to trust myself again. After my suicide attempt three months later I lost everything. My marriage, my home, my car, my kids but most of all I lost myself. I had to start from nothing and live out my work truck for about eight months. That was the hardest struggle ever. I suffered so bad last year I got sick, diagnosed with lupus, became severely anemic almost died because I was out of blood and didn’t know. I thought I had vertigo went to the ER and found out I was out of blood and my count at a 6 and needed emergency blood transfusions.I lost friends. Even though I was struggling people were still using me. Ex-husband still taking advantage making my life hell. People walked all over me because I didn’t have confidence anymore. I didn’t care what people did to me I had lost my voice I had lost my identity. But eventually I got back up again and I’m pushing forward I had to start from scratch with rebuilding who I am and remembering just how awesome I am. Remembering just how strong I truly am. It wasn’t easy and I’m still rebuilding but I’m proud to say that I’m growing and I’m stronger than ever . Learning to love yourself again is powerful and as long as you love yourself you can do anything you put your mind to you just gotta be willing to do the work. Choosing me and putting me first was the best decision I ever made and I’m back on the right path to reclaiming my life. I’m not in my own home yet no I haven’t got a new car yet however I have a new mindset. I have new Hope I have new vision and I have unmovable faith and I know God is going to see me through. I have self-love and I know that I’m going to see myself as well.
Contact Info:
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Samoya Shannae
