From Drew
2009, I paid little attention to him. I started listening to the BBC Radio after June 2009. I could listen 24/7, but I always looked out for the BBC’s World Today (now News Day).
I always
loved waking up at dawn, lie on my bed and listen to Komla’s voice, not so much
of the news when he is on air, just the voice.
I had always
wanted to be in the news media, until recently that public relations started
cropping into my heart. Listening to him, while he was miles away in London, I
knew I had made the right decision to divert from business
to media and
communications.
He wasn't my
only inspiration though; Oprah Winfrey is also one of the people I looked up to,
to gather the courage and go into the media. Oprah once said, “You need to find
a way to make money from what you love”.
I love the
media, it is hot, fast, no room for delay, very little room for error, adrenaline
and testosterone flowing everywhere, camera, lights, pen, paper, microphones, attention
(yeah attention), incredible power to determine the subject of conversation of
people I will never meet or know, and most of all, the ability to loose yourself
in a story and shape people's opinions.
So it was
just right that I get a career and earn money from doing something I really,
really, really loved.
I have never
told my friends about this, but I always imagined myself interviewing Komla and
Oprah (not at the same time) and of course the Queen, sometimes I sit in my
room and talk to myself, pretending like I'm interviewing one of them.
You might
not get it, but it's just like what aspiring musicians do, when they stand in
front of their mirror and sing pretending they are singing to a crowd of people,
when really, the only audience they have is their own image in the mirror
mimicking them and not paying attention to their incredible or not so
incredible voice.
Just like
myself whose dream of interviewing Komla is now going to be just that (a dream),
I know Komla also really wanted to interview the man himself, Nelson Mandela
(he never got the chance too).
Recovering
from the sad news of his death, one thing I cheered myself with was that,
“Komla just couldn't wait to interview Nelson Mandela, and that he had to
follow him to where he is”.
~~Rest In Peace Komla, from my LBU
friends and myself~~
