My name is Zithobile (Zi | toh | bih | leh), which means calm and teachable in several southern African languages - Zulu/Siswati/Xhosa.

My story may be as random as they come. I'm a girl who was born in Swaziland (Google it) and raised in North Carolina. Through a series of great fortune and whatever you call its opposite ("misfortune" doesn't seem strong enough), I've learned that I am a writer and educator who cares most about three things - awareness, adventure, and authenticity.
If you care about these as well, keep reading...

I'm a Swazi and a North-Carolinian who loves asking hard questions, and believes that our passion and pain can be the very things that shape our purpose and strengthen our capacity for leadership.

AWARENESS: Humans carry energy, and we each have a profound impact on one another. Awareness of this impact is everything.

We know what it's like to be around someone who's clueless. They're rude and oblivious. Self-obsessed and out of touch. Convinced of their own certainty, while wholly disconnected from that of others. Their words contradict, and their actions scream hypocrisy. We know that person - and covertly roll our eyes when they open their mouths.

The only thing worse... is if that person is YOU.
How do you know?

ADVENTURE: Most of us want to be brave. Few are willing to actually do what's required to embody it. My life is a product of my parents' adventure. With three young girls, and their first boy on the way, they chose to move our family across the Atlantic - from a country ruled by a king... to The Tarheel State.

They did it for freedom. They did it for hope. They did it for strength. They did it to fully experience what life has to offer. They did it for education and limitless possibilities - for themselves and their children.

Adventure is often worth it... a gazillion times over. It brings sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and lessons that make for a lifetime of dope conversations.
Yet why does it scare us so?

AUTHENTICITY: A friend once told me that the hardest thing for a person to do is to be themselves. The theme is recurring. People want the freedom to be themselves and to honor their true interests, but finding/creating work that allows us to bring our whole selves can be daunting.

While many of us claim to value authenticity as a personal guidepost, more of us find ourselves in relationships, jobs, and even random conversations, betraying the very Self
we claim to adore.
Why is that?