By Noel D. Ferrer
GISELLE Tongi Walters Is doing very well in Los Angeles. She is the executive director of FilAm Arts, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Filipino-American arts and culture.
She has lived in LA since 2003 after she graduated from Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, she moved back to Manila briefly in 2012 to film a documentary thinking she would be home for good. But she returned to Los Angeles after a local LA station, LA18, hired her as an executive producer and host of Kababayans Today in 2014. What she misses most about living in the Philippines is her family.
After her stint as host/ moderator in the forum on the Screen Actors Guild and the welfare and rights of every actor in the recently concluded Manila International Film Festival, we asked Giselle about the most important lessons she has learned from living in the United States , and here are her very random but insightful reflections:
- Raising my children has taught me so much about myself and has been the toughest yet most fulfilling role of my life.
- Self care is necessary for mental health. It’s okay to say no and have boundaries especially when you know that it isn’t adding to your wellbeing.
- Finding ones’s purpose in their work is truly what I wish for everyone because when you love what you do, it never feels like work.
- The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized that my self worth doesn’t need to be validated by anyone other than myself.
- Life doesn’t have to be complicated, especially when you consistently are grateful for every small or momentous occasion that happens. Practicing mindfulness and meditating every day has helped me to become more content and centered to recognize all the blessings the world has to offer.
Giselle has a degree in Communication Studies from the UCLA. She and husbandTim Walters have two kids, Kenobi Benjamin and Sakura Anne Marie.
