When I first discovered Top 40 music on the radio, I fell in love. I loved the catchy pop melodies, the infectious sounds and the endless abandon of the singers! As my brothers and cousins have yet to listen to Top 40 music, I felt that my discovery of the genre was something special, something that was mine. Rihanna became my first favorite singer as her Good Girl Gone Bad album, which was the first album I ever bought, helped spur my first dream job. Reading the liner notes of her album over and over again, I learned about the people who helped create her music. I wanted to become a music producer so that I could create songs such as Rehab and Umbrella. Timbaland and Stargate became my idols with their consistently remarkable collaborations with stars, such as Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and The Pussycat Dolls. At that time, I thought that the music producer was the one who created the melody and the songwriters were the ones who came up with the lyrics. I soon realized that the songwriters came up with the lyrics and the melody while the music producer oversaw and managed the recording and production of a song. Thus, I wanted to become a song-writer/music producer.

One day, I revealed this dream to Mother. While driving back to the house in a green van one afternoon, Mother asked my brothers and I, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

My brothers said what they wanted to be and I forgot their answers, but I remembered mine. When it was my turn, I sat up, leaned toward and said, “I want to be a music producer,” as Mother was driving up to our house.

She laughed. Then said, “That’s unrealistic!” I instantly sunk back into my seat and became quiet. Although this event seemed minor, it was quite significant for me as it was when I learned that any job in the arts was unrealistic and decided to lower my aim, opting to dream of more realistic jobs. I have always wondered how different my life would be if my parents encourage my dreams and helped me to pursue it. Would I have become an established song-writer/music producer? Would I have been able to work with famous singers? Would I have been able to make a career out of it? Unfortunately, we will never know…