From Mixing Beats To Planting Trees

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a DJ in future. Wait wait, don’t laugh yet. Around the ages of 5 to 11, my brothers and I always put up a whole show for my mom before going to bed. We would wear our pajamas, go to her room and then start singing and jumping on her bed. We would scream our lungs out from one music to the other and of course, I was the song coordinator. I remember how I used to start the song and then make beats with my mouth whiles my brothers did massive massacre to the song.

We made so much noise but my mom never stopped us in any way. In fact, she used to be the drummer. The only person who never knew of this concert was my dad. Oh, we dared not. Somewhere along the line, my dad started organizing a lot of parties for the kids in the neighborhood. I always looked forward to such parties because my dad gave me full authority over the mixer. I was really young but I understood the basics. I was in charge of choosing what music to play and at what time.

I remember how everyone wanted to be my friend because at that time, I was the coolest kid on the block with my headphones and all. Later in Junior high school, I began to really feel lonely over the loss of my best friend. I decided I was going to be a medical doctor just so I would never lose any loved one to illnesses of any sort. I knew it was going to be tough but I made up my mind to go for it. I began my journey of becoming a medical doctor and then someway somehow, I found out I wasn’t really interested in saving lives.

Anytime I saw water bodies whiles traveling, I realized most of them were so polluted. It was just an eyesore. I later found out it was as a result of illegal mining activities. Of course, there were others also seriously involved in deforestation. I got really disappointed and I didn’t like it that I was going to spend years in school just to come out to save the same lives that were causing great havoc to the only place we call home.

That disappointment I felt ignited a sense of responsibility in me towards the environment and years later, here I am, an environmental scientist. I can’t even describe the feeling I get after performing environmental impact assessments for mining companies and other proponents. It’s a joy seeing that most people care about the environment and are ready to do the little they can to protect it.

By the way, I always admire kids who say they want to be doctors, engineers, nurses and so on. I think it’s really cool to have that mentality at such young age. Not me, I was busy planning to probably produce an album for Chris Brown or Drake someday.