Hey!  I wanted to tell you all a little about me… where I am from, where I am and where I am going. I’ll try to leave out the boring details, but I tend to ramble so please forgive me. :)

I was born in Oyo State, Nigeria… home of the real Yoruba people! My daddy was an English professor and Mommy was a nurse. They were such a cute couple, huh?

My older sis, Seun, was born 19 months before me. It was just the four of us for a while, then my parents decided to leave the nest. In hopes of providing a better life and more opportunity for their growing family, they packed up the girls and moved us to America… land of opportunity.

Our first stop was New Mexico, where my younger sis, Tokunbo would be born. Then to Tennessee where my little bro, Jide would be born. With a family of six, my parents had to work extra hard and they instilled that same work ethic in us kids. Our family did not have a lot of money, but we’d never know it cause we were more than content with our government cheese, corn flakes, and powdered milk. Life was good as far as I was concerned, except for the bullies that used to chase us home from school. Youth is wasted on the youth, cause I’d put up a much better fight now! (wink) Well I guess we can attribute our speed to that elementary school training.

Eventually we moved out of the hood and into the suburbs… nice. Believe it or not, I was a very shy young girl. No really! I promise! Ask Seun! She was my voice most of the time. She was also so much better than me in school so I guess I didn’t think I had anything important to say. All that would change in high school. By this time we had moved to Huntsville, Alabama. Being a part of the Grissom High School track and field team would give me an opportunity to come out of my shell. Seun and I would lead the team to State titles while picking up some Alabama state records in our best events. Ahhh… the days when track was easy!!!

 Sometime in high school, people started bringing up the idea of going to the Olympics and the dream was born. I got a scholarship to Penn State where running and winning was not so easy anymore. I eventually caught up and started breaking records there too. WOW! God is so good!

After college I knew I had to continue running… chasing that one moment in time where dreams meet reality.

Its been a much more difficult journey since college. There was no longer a team setting & institution full of support staff. I realized just how individual our sport really is. Balancing work, training, competitions and new bills was more stress than I ever anticipated. Constantly in battle, I drew closer to God than ever while praying for strength, wisdom, and money. That’s real… My lowest point was in 2004 when I felt that I had to decide if I should just quit. That year I would see God turn everything around for me. I ran my PB (personal best) of 12.89… a light and hope in my gloom where I felt God was telling me that I have to continue because this is where He wants me to be.

I can’t say everything got easy after that, but it all felt doable. I stayed in the game… persevered through the fire and I feel wiser and stronger because of it. God is so awesome! It’s amazing to me how He meets us at our point of need and answers our prayers.

I really believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am still a work in progress, but I trust in His plan for me and I look forward to experiencing all He has planned to do to glorify His name through my life.

 Hallelujah!