Source: michaeljackson.com
My earliest memories were being three years old because everyone would pick me up and tell me that I was going to be a big brother. At that time my mother was pregnant with my new baby brother. I have many other memories from that year that are very special to me, particularly the things my family members would do to prepare me for pre-school.
When I was four years old my life completely changed. I started to watch more television, and music videos became my favorite things to watch. One day, I can’t remember if it was on MTV or BET, but I saw Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” for the first time. I loved everything about the video: the song, the way the sidewalk would light up when he would step on it, the lyrics and dance, literally everything.
When I saw my mother, I told her that I saw Michael Jackson on TV. She asked what was he doing. I said he was singing a song, “Billie Jean”. She told me that she liked that song too and he has a lot of other ones as well. I simply said, “really?”. She replied, “he has a lot of songs by himself but he used to sing with his brothers when he was little”. After asking her a couple of more questions she told me that his band was the Jackson 5.
It was at that point where I knew that I had to see the Jackson 5 for myself. At this point, we did not have a computer in the house yet, so there was no YouTube or search engine for me to find out about the band. I decided I needed to binge watch music videos until I find the Jackson 5. For weeks, I would be watching MTV, BET and VH1.
While I’m binge watching music videos I got to see “Thriller”, “Beat It”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Speed Demon”, “Dirty Diana” and other solo works. I also saw The Jackson’s video for “Can you feel it”. So, I got to see the band when they were a little older, but I still needed to see them as young performers.
Finally, after a couple of weeks, I saw the Jackson 5 video for “Rockin’ Robin” on BET. I was blown away by the performances of young Michael. I began to think about my older cousin who would have been close in age to Michael when he was lead singer of the Jackson 5. I started to wonder if my cousin could do something extraordinary (maybe not sing and dance), but achieve a level of excellence in something else (perhaps in academics, basketball, piano or anything). The next logical process happened in my young mind; I started to think that when I would be around 10 years old, could I do something extraordinary in my life.
I remember his interviews about his lost childhood and it made me want to send in fan mail or find some other way to reach out to him and let him know that my childhood was fine, but because of his music and performances it expanded my imagination, became an inspiration to me, and made my already comfortable childhood a million times better.
Thank you, Michael Jackson for sharing your music and message to the entire world. I am a fan for life. Even though I never got the chance to meet him or see him perform live, he will always be an inspiration to me and for that I am truly thankful.