We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tongela White. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tongela below.
Tongela, 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?
My resilience comes from myself. At one point I was homeless. I could’ve went to my Mom’s house or any family’s house but I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to finally pull myself out of depression. I went to a shelter, went to counseling and hated it! I hated so many pieces of me. It was hard. At times I wanted to quit but I knew I had to keep going. I knew I had to finally come to terms with who I needed to love and that person was me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m just me. I’m a domestic violence survivor. I survived childhood molestation and I’m no longer a volunteer for anything traumatic or draining. If I can survive, so can anybody. The work will be hard (Working on self) but it’s worth it. It’s plenty of days when I feel down but I have to get up or my demons will win and I can’t have that! I have books on Amazon (Tonglea White) They’re priced low B/C I didn’t want to make money. I wanted to tell my story. Every book I’ve ever written has me in it.
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?
This journey is hard! It’s easy to quit but I beg you to keep going. My childhood wasn’t easy, especially with my molestation but I refuse to let what happened to me, kill me. I’m Tongela, beautiful with so many scars but that’s the beauty of it. Those scars make me different and I love that for me. The mirror is your friend. Get in it and tell your everyday, that YOU matter!
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I have Lupus and a clotting disorder. At times I can’t walk due to the clots. I almost died on 2011 and in 2016. I have clots in both lungs. I begged God to take me due to the pain. I’m here solely because I can do all things with God. Listen, I got a story to tell!!
