We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rufaro Musvosvi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rufaro below.
Rufaro, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
My mother has this saying that she’s repeated to me when I’ve been at the end of my rope, which has been many, many times. “Simba itsime remufuku, rinosinira.” The translation being, “Strength is like a well dug by the river, it will refill.”
I think in the deepest recesses of our minds, we know that our mental health struggles will ebb and flow, which is why we typically say we’re “tired” and not “done” when we feel defeated. The solution to being tired, to me, is to rest and trust that if I give it time, my strength will refill. Some days I feel stable, but on the days when I am just 3 prescriptions in a trench coat, I remember that I have been stable before, and therefore my body can get back to that equilibrium.
Outside of my medications (which took me years to accept that I need), remembering that my body has been happy before, and therefore just needs time to remember how to be happy again, is the single best way to keep my above water. Or at least make it easier to hold my breath when I’m under.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Currently, I work as a media consultant for a philanthropic organization. I assist with asset cataloguing, occasionally conducting interviews and assisting in the technical aspects of digital media. I also do video editing as part of their social impact team. It feels good to be part of the social justice space. Previously, when I worked only in engineering, the workplace discouraged conversations surrounding social justice. In my current area of work, it is at the center of what we do every day. As someone who is at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, this is directly connected to my existence.
Outside of my regular work, I also enjoy creative directing, although I took a break for the last year or so due to some personal reasons. I plan to get back into that vein of work as it helps me build my creative muscles and it keeps me connected to my emotions.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
One of the hardest, but most valuable lessons to learn is adaptability. Realizing that my original, desired path wouldn’t work out was painful, especially because I’d been promised by the world that if I took certain steps (great grades, great college, networking, etc.), I would have an easy path to my goal. The reality is that “success” doesn’t always come to you just because you did the right things. Yes, those things set you up to do well, but they are not a guarantee. When the path starts getting sticky, adapt. Maybe that’s a career change, maybe it’s starting medication, it could be modifying your goals.
The second lesson that has helped me along my journey is pattern recognition. Having switched between different careers, and having moved around a lot since my youth, making connections between my current situation and my last has helped me navigate new situations in which I would have otherwise been out of my depth. Understanding media codecs is surprisingly similar to understanding logarithmic scales in math. And building a catalogue of interview transcripts is just like building a database to track chemical testing.
The third lesson, and it is now a principle that I live by, is to innovate. Try something new. I know the world seems like you have to pick one thing and do it for the rest of your life, but that’s actually not a real rule. You’re not going to get in trouble for starting over, or doing something new for yourself. There isn’t currently an established path that combines all the different things you like? Make one. What’s the worst that can happen? You’re allowed to make stuff, even if it’s new stuff. It’s your life!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am open and excited to collaborate with folks who are looking for creative direction for their upcoming projects/ventures/rollouts. I work with a multimedia approach which can include music, marketing, video, installations, etc. Interested parties can contact me at [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Other: Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Personal photo: Jessica Felicio Black and white photo from poetry reading: Biana Tirado/Pamela Blair Photo with several women seated at a show panel: Arielle Pickett Photo from set (orange and teal/man and woman standing together): Jonas Stewart Photo from set (ballerina in front of car on white background): Rufaro Musvosvi/Jeriah Richardson
