403 Torry Avenue ,

Bronx , New York 10473,

February 6, 2020.

Julianne Beth

Professor of English education

City College of New York

160 Convent Avenue ,

New York , New York 10031,

Dear Ms. Davidow

America is different , New York feels similar but very different . My mother left me when I was 9 to come to America for greener pastures. I always admired and idolized the great America . We Nigerians when offered the slightest opportunity to go abroad we mostly take it . I used to think America was land of money . Like once you there , some way or the other you will be rich . I grew up without a father and mother in my life . I grew up in Lagos . A city of almost twenty million people. I lived in Surulere , a city notorious for its hood style though not really poverty rigged compared to other places . Living in Surulere was very fun. I had neighbors I would play soccer with , watch television and play  soccer with . I grew up with a lot of soccer and around entertainment ; music and movies .

The very early part of my childhood was fun till I moved to Egbeda , where I had to stay with a particular aunty who I did not like very much .I spent  four to five years in Egbeda and I can say the most important thing that happened to me was the interest I developed in music , rapping to be specific . I was roughly 11 or 12 years old and I was very passionate . I had a manager at 12 or 13 I believe . He gave me my first show . I was very excited, he organized a band with back up singers , keyboardist , drummers and me (The lead singer and rapper ).  When the day came, I was very nervous. It was my first show at age 12 / 13 I can’t precisely remember. I do remember how nerve racking I felt especially in beginning but towards the middle I felt comfortable and my ending was great . I did get some standing ovation . I had  a promising start but besides music I was not focusing on school , and I was hanging out with the wrong guys . So my Mother decided to send me to boarding school . Which meant that was the end of music for me and most importantly ended the relationship with my manager.

Boarding school was tough and unfortunately due to the length limit of this paper I would not be going into details about the terrible and embarrassing  experiences I had. However , Boarding school gave me a lot. It taught me how to be a man of ambition . It taught me discipline. It taught me that life is not all about roses. I had to take care of my self , physically , mentally and emotionally . While all these are great qualities to have as a person. However, boarding school almost killed my passion for music . I went to a very Christian boarding, that did not allow no form of circular music . So I had stop making music for a long time . However, at the end of high school . Someone showed me how to produce beats and I got the hang of it and practiced a lot and started getting better . So in another way , I got acquainted with music in a way that was acceptable by music and that was how I started music again .

When I graduated high school I was very different from when I came into high school. I learnt different thing about life and I also had ambitions and a career interest . I picked up computer programming and thought it was interesting. So today as we speak I am currently pursuing a degree in computer engineering while also working on music by the side . After years in America I realized America is not a land of gold as I thought , you still have to work hard.

Yours Sincerely,

Chukwudi Udoka .