I guess it’s time you got to know the person behind the words.
My name is Nana Takyi Baffour-Awuah. I was named after my father’s aunty who was good to him, and I was born on Wednesday, making me a Kweku also. For the first few weeks of my life, my siblings tried to get my name to be ‘Ricky’ but failed (Thank you Daddy for your resolve!).
Speaking of siblings, I have three of them; a wonderful sister who I thought was my mother for a prolonged period of my infancy, and two great brothers who have always had my back, and still do. Before I forget, all the boys (my brothers and me) were born on the 17th day of our respective months, hence the family joke that Daddy must have planned it; a likely possibility because he was a gynaecologist/ obstetrician/ general practitioner, Mummy is an English Literature teacher (and an author, hopefully sometime soon).
I love music because it provides an avenue to vent and to reflect effectively; it puts things in perspective, and though sometimes, you can’t find the words to say something, there’s always a song that fully captures that elusively inexplicable emotion – I have a special fondness for rock of any kind. I also love poetry because it’s music’s cousin, so I guess its one of those affection by association things. I think my most prized ability is that I can sing. Sometimes when I get sore throats or I wake up all groggy and my voice is messed up, it scares me a little bit; if I found out one day that I’d never be able to sing again, I think the rest of my life would just be one vast expanse of despondency.
I love my family, and the friends that treat me right, and I try (probably not as hard as I should) to love God and appreciate all He does for me everyday. Video games are an experience I think no one should do without (role-playing games are beyond any other kind of electronic entertainment), black- and- white movies are the ambrosia of my soul, and mythology, legend and random esoterica are my guilty pleasure. Thanks to Mummy, I can cook (my grilled chicken is heaven…yes, I can say so myself!) and clean like a seasoned cleaning lady. I’m not very sporty though I enjoy the occasional swim or basketball game; however, thanks to Daddy’s genes, I’m never really out of shape.
I’m not sure of what exactly I want to do in college or what exactly I want to be doing in the next couple of years after it. However, people always seem to trust and rely on me so maybe I’ll end up being a shrink. I do know for sure that by thirty I should be making music with my life and generating income with my investments, so I can retire -if I so please- from my shrinkship by thirty.
Daddy passed away almost exactly three years ago. That was a period of pain, realisation and revelation, but it was also an experience that drew my family together, unified in God’s love. This experience and the rest of my life are responsible for the person I’ve grown into: an extro-introvert, a sympathetic empathiser, a thinker, an assertive achiever, a passionate romantic and a person who tries to make things better when he can.
There’s obviously more to me, but this post is long enough as it is, so I’ll shut up until another day.
Blessings.
