Buck 65 is a hip hop artist with his own unique rhyme styling lyrical presentation. He hails from Mount Uniacke, Nova Scotia.

Not only do I believe you can make it if you try, I consider myself living proof of the adage.

I believe in one of the most cliche adages there is: ‘you can make it if you try’. It’s been said a thousand ways now: ‘never give up on your dreams’, ‘believe and you can achieve’. These all sounds like things we say to kids when we don’t know what else to say. But not only do I believe you can make it if you try, I consider myself living proof of the adage.

Call it luck or call it being unyieldingly stubborn, but I’ve proven it a few times in my life — and against all odds . But isn’t that how it’s supposed to be with these kinds of stories?

When I was eight years old I decided I was going to be a professional baseball player when I grew up. There was no baseball program Mount Unniacke Nova Scotia and I hate to say it, but I got no encouragement from my parents whatsoever. I learned by watching games on tv. I’d throw a tennis ball against the foundation of my house for hours and hours on end. I had no one to play with. Watching my reflection in the screen door, I’d work on perfecting my swing endlessly.

When at 16, a man who worked for the Yankees told me I was going to be a superstar, I didn’t even flinch. I already knew that.

A wrecked knee put those plans off the rails. My attention quickly turned to music which had been a passion all along. Fewer people sign major label record deals in a year than there are lottery winners. And again, everyone around me — including my parents — said it would never happen and that I should stay in school and become a doctor.

You know, I truly think it was all that “never” talk I was hearing that pushed me the most. I don't know what the heck that says about me.

When most kids hear that ‘follow your dreams’ line, I think they close their eyes real tight and hope that it will be there waiting for them when they wake up in the morning. We don’t tell kids that it might take fifteen years blood, sweat and tears. For me, that’s what it took. I always believed I could make it. And lo’ and behold, a million screen doors later, here I am, doing what I love for a living.

It couldn’t be sweeter.

For This I Believe, I’m Rich Terfry, also known as Buck 65, in Toronto.