Meet Bukuru Rugwizangoga

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bukuru Rugwizangoga. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bukuru below.

Bukuru, 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 get my resilience from everything I’ve been through in life, whether it was good or bad, I’ve been here long enough to know that everything is just passing through and that goes for feelings, people & things.

But most importantly growing up just watching my mother do the impossible time after time. She’s shown me that resilience is the face of adversity, you just gotta keep going and that the only way is through what you go through & all through it may be uncomfortable you will always grow through it as go through it.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My name is Bukuru Rugwizangoga and I am from Lowell Massachusetts.

I view myself as a man on a mission & I’m here to install Hope & bring unity back in the community, & not just mine but to the whole world. My whole mission is to simply make the world a better place & as cliché as that may sound I mean it & I live it.

I have a brand called the Neighborhood Hope Dealer, and that’s just one of a few brands of mine, but the whole base is to simply remind people that we’re all one, no matter the race, gender, or age, we’re all one and we’re all going through this thing we call life for the very first time whether it be your grandpa or mother, this is their first time living just like the all over us. The whole point of the platform is to instill hope and remind us of how equally we’re all the same and to embrace each other instead of being divided.

I drop daily gentle reminders on the platform @thehoodhopedealer follow the platform and tune in for positive and food for thought posts, in a day & age where social media is filled with negativity, I champion pushing positivity, hope & love, etc with my platform.

My other brand is called 4th Quarter, and the slogan is “Never fold under mental pressure.” It’s bigger than just a brand to me, as it is a part of me, the mindset is my motto and way of living. 4th quarter is a constant reminder that no matter your conditions, it’s always your mindset. And that is the very reason why I still rise when I face adversity, I lean into what I preach and live my advice.

I dropped hoodies in the past & as I am now planning my next drop I advise everyone to be on the lookout & follow the brand @4thquarterbrand & stay tuned.

That’s just a few of many things I do, but I am heavenly involved in the community. I am always working with the youth and educating them on the importance of mental health and helping them with tools that can help them navigate in life with the wisdom I gained from my trials & tribulations. I’m big on leading by example because know how important it is for them to hear me but most importantly see it.

I am the person I needed when I was younger & now I’m doing my best to be that for others.

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?

Listening, I’m always listening and I am always open to learning.

Understanding that nobody knows everything and that we all know something. So always be open to learning and understand that we’re all students of life, so never be afraid to ask questions & when you learn always teach, that’s how the world goes around.

Discipline, staying down, and being true to myself no matter how I’m feeling or what everyone else has going on & not overriding my emotions. You gotta stay composed and make sure you never move off your emotions.

Being yourself. That’s the most important one to me, my character has gotten me more opportunities than any amount of dollar bill ever has. You gotta be yourself and live, walk, and breathe your truth, don’t worry about the rest of the world they’ll adjust. And the more you become yourself the people looking for you will always find you.

You’ll find opportunities that suit you & your true tribe will embrace you. But the beginning isn’t easy as you’re easily judged and pointed at for being yourself in a world where people are all like the rest, but in the midst of it all, everything falls into place as it falls apart.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

My mother Uwitonze Mulengera, sacrificed everything she could to bring me & my siblings to the United States for a better life.

If it was easy everyone would be here, but it’s just me, my siblings & my mother.

Single mother of 6 & she raised us all on her own, 5 boys, but 4 now because my twin brother Butoyi passed at birth. And 1 girl as she’s the new addition to our family.

If you ask me what a superhero is & I will tell you my mother, I’ve seen her do the impossible time after time, she is my hero.

I am my mother with all the opportunities she never got to have, so I take pride in everything I do and take advantage of every given chance & opportunity and I always make sure to give it my best.

Growing up seeing her do the impossible as she did the most with the least. She installed in me the fire to never settle and opened my eyes to dream and see past any ceiling, most say that the sky is the limit but they say man has been to the moon, so I see past it & no dream is too big for me, I can be anything I want to be, and I can do anything I want to do, as long as I focus and put in the work is what my mother showed & continues to show me.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Instagram: @eyeofbrii
Instagram: @hdiamondpictures
Instagram: @chrisguigni
Instagram: @shotbyjong
Instagram: @thee_voyage

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