T-Dub & Me

So let me take you on a trip down memory lane, 25 years in the making. It’s mid to late August of 2001. After a summer of going to the beach multiple times and everyone still reeling from the craze of movies like Rush Hour 2 and The Fast and the Furious, the summer is nearly over and I’ve just started 3rd grade at my new school Seawell elementary in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My teacher’s name is Ms. Scales and her assistant is Ms. White. My first week at this new school was pretty typical new kid, new playground, new rules type of stuff, but that first Saturday of the school year helped to set the tone for a future I never saw coming.

On Saturday August 25, 2001 the princess of R&B Aaliyah died in a plane crash and the following Monday it was all any of us could talk about, especially the kid with glasses who sat across from me in Ms. Scales’ class. His name was Torron Williams, he mentioned Aaliyah’s death and how big of a fan he was of her and I told him how much I love Aaliyah as well and we basically had an “oh snap, we should be best friends” moment. In the midst of the events that immediately followed Aaliyah’s death including 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, me and Torron grew a closer bond.

Me and Torron realized we both had a shared love of music. I was good at rapping and Torron was good at beat boxing. We soon started rapping in front of our class and eventually it became known around school that we were like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. We even rapped in front of our whole class after we gave this big Jamaican inspired performance in front of the whole school called Folk Moot. We also had a shared beef with our teacher Ms. Scales and that led to our mothers meeting and becoming cool with each other.

Let me tell you something about Torron Williams. He is the definition of a true friend in every aspect of the word. We only had class together for a year, as I only went to Seawell for a year, but at the end of that year I just so happened to move right around the corner from him. This move solidified us in a big way. It got to a point where we could go the longest time without talking and pick up right where we left off like no time had passed. Torron is that friend who always reaches out and pays a visit, no matter when, no matter where. My mother and sister both grew to love him as well.

He could come over my house and my mom treated him like her son and I could go over his house and his mother Sharron treated me like her son. Even when I moved from Chapel Hill right before I turned 13 me and him were still close like brothers. I’ll never forget the day my mother passed away. I was in such a traumatic shock that I didn’t know what to do, but call Torron. He couldn’t believe the news and him and his mother were both heartbroken because of how much they loved my mother.

Fast forward to the present day. Me and Torron are still brothers for life. He met my grandmother who has the utmost respect for him and always asks about him and of course his mother has always been a second mother to me. We both graduated college and transitioned into manhood and when I published my first book ever last year, Torron was one of the first people to get a copy. This is his birthday weekend. So on this day I say Happy birthday to my twin brother Torron Williams.