I have known I wanted to be a scientist since I was a kid. My earliest memory of wanting to be a scientist was 7 years old. Science was my favorite class and I thought it was cool. My mom told me that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and that if I wanted to be a scientist, then I would be one. Three years later, my mom passed suddenly from a brain aneurism. Scientists come from everywhere, but not many came from my Shaw neighborhood in Washington, D.C. in the 80s. It is a beautiful neighborhood, but in those days, it was infested with drugs and violence. The odds of a black kid raised by a single dad in the middle of a crime-infested neighborhood becoming a competitive scientist were not great. Fortunately for me, I never knew that. Story Read by Fanuel Muindi. Background music from www.bensound.com