Jason spent his formative years in Trinidad without a father figure, all be it, in the care of a supportive extended family of strong women. His father migrated to Canada well before his birth following other family members who went there to work as skilled tradesmen. Shortly after birth, his mother migrated to Venezuela following a similar dream. In the mid-60s, Venezuela’s booming oil industry attracted thousands of skilled and unskilled men and women from Trinidad.
Jason has fond memories of growing up in Trinidad. He was surrounded by women who had raised many of the youngest members of the family when the parents were unable to be full time parents. These early years served Jason well. He finished high school as a well grounded, soft-spoken young man.
Eventually, he joined his mother in Venezuela. But he found the transition difficult. After five years he returned to Trinidad at 21 years old and finally met his father for the first time during one of his return visits to Trinidad. The encounter was awkward, but his father decided that Jason should join him in Canada. He soon found himself in another country completely unfamiliar to him.
But integration into his new home in Canada was not without its challenges. After all, he and his father were strangers, and his new stepmother was not very welcoming. He slowly grew apart from this new family and moved out on his own. Unfortunately, he was attracted to friends who were not invested in his well-being.
Along the way, Jason found himself in Jamaica on an adventure that ended with nine months in prison for a drug-related offence, which he acknowledges as poor judgement on his part. When he was released from prison, Jason went to the Canadian embassy seeking assistance to go home. But since he had never acquired Canadian citizenship, Canada had no interest in claiming him as one of its own. The Jamaican government eventually returned him unceremoniously to Trinidad.
But this young man, now in his 30s, climbed back from a dark period in his life. He got a job on a cruise ship for several years, sailing throughout the Caribbean and the Mediterranean Sea. He saved some money, and more importantly, reclaimed his place in society. In his 50s now, Jason has reintegrated into life in Trinidad. He has grown into a spiritual being who doesn’t look back to curse the past, but sees the future as one that he and he alone will control.