BIO

I am the daughter of two great Nigerian parents and the fifth child out of six children. I have three nieces and no pets, yet—unless you want to count my stuffed pets, in which case I have a frog, a monkey, a penguin, and a few bears. I am also a vegetarian (since January 2004). It still surprises some people to hear that I am a Nigerian and a vegetarian. Frankly, I do not miss meat, poultry, fish, or seafood as I thought I would. I currently spend most of my days in Washington, DC, and during the other days, you will find me in Bronx, New York.

Now let us go back to the beginning. I was born on a beautiful November morning in the year 1981 in Lagos, Nigeria. As a child, I wanted to be everything, from a cleaner to a judge—I saw the beauty in every job and so wanted to be associated with each one. One of the big events in my early teen years was when I joined the Nigerian Red Cross (through my school). My peers and I used to walk around my community on Sanitation Day, to make sure that people swept their homes, cleaned gutters, observed general good hygiene, and the like. People were not allowed to go anywhere (not until about noon), but my friends and I, in our white uniform, blue beret, and Red Cross badge could freely walk around—this fact brought us as much satisfaction as waking up early in the morning to help our community.

In 1997, I left my warm home in Nigeria to meet a cold and depressing weather in the U.S. I later graduated from Williams College (Williamstown, MA) with a BA in Psychology. I majored in Psychology because of its ability to explore and explain behavior, emotions, and feelings, and I concentrated in Neuroscience in order to understand the biological basis of these behaviors and feelings. Through studying about psychology, I learned about the power of the mind, and I found myself wanting to write often, wanting to create characters whose mind I could explore and define. Writing became a great way to explore the mind’s often secret world.

My debut Novel, The Looming Fog, is inspired by and dedicated to my mom (and my mothers through her). My original intention for writing what now became The Looming Fog was to document my mom’s wounding childhood environment in some way. I figured that writing has a way of preserving people, of sharing their experiences, and of lifting their burden. While some aspects of my mom’s childhood (and by extension my grandmother’s life) are still in the book, the focus of the book is not on her, but is on people, on us. The book tells about the life of people as they struggle to fit in or break free of their society’s expectations. In general, you can expect that my stories will tend to tell about the struggle to live, of the battle going on in one’s mind and heart, or of one’s wish and effort to be something one sees that one is not yet being.

One of my biggest philosophies on life is that there is always something to improve in my life: be more loving, be more giving more of myself, be a better daughter, be a better friend, be a better storyteller, be a better person, be more . . . There is so much to aim for; this is what makes life fun for me. I like to look back and say that I have changed, that I am better.

So what am I doing when I am not trying to steal a look at someone’s mind? Aside from engaging in other important hobbies like dancing (belly dancing is the current flavor for me), reading, restaurant hopping, going to the movies, chatting with friends, and so on, I will be studying—medical school work demands my attention. I am particularly interested in international medicine, and it is my great hope to work as an international doctor, serving people in various developing countries. My experience during a college-sponsored health mission in Nicaragua stands as one of the most rewarding experience of my life to date (second only to the day I was baptized into Christ and my life thereafter). People, regardless of their status or background, illness or health, perfections or defects, ought to be respected and treated as valuable human beings, and one’s health (or lack there of) can tarnish this respect. Serving as a physician is a way for me to help people to maintain their self-respect and to live to their fullest capacity.

I love God through whom I am who I am and will become. Each thing I do (medicine, writing, dancing, or whatever), I hope it increases my capacity to love God, life, and people. When you love, you will laugh more. And when you laugh, life will surely not pass you by without saying hello.