The first memory I have of Michael Jackson was when my mother was holding me, rocking me to sleep as a child. I remember being held over her shoulder while sitting in a tan leather chair in our living room. The room was dark or dimly lit and a song by The Jacksons was playing on the stereo. I can't recall with one hundred percent accuracy which song it was — I was probably less than 3 years old — but I'm fairy sure it was Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) from their 1978 album, Destiny.

The next time Michael Jackson showed up was in the range of 1983 or 1984 when the Thriller album was delivered to our house from a Columbia House mail order. It may have been an album my parents got for themselves, but I really made it my own. I recall one day playing in the basement and mother yelling down to me Thriller was coming on MTV; I immediately stopped what I was doing and went upstairs to watch it — I was terrified but also completely entranced by it. I would go on listening to the Thriller album so many times with heavier rotation on the title song, acting and dancing along to emulate the Thriller short film. For the songs' intro, I recall acting like I was opening a door and walking into a stack of empty boxes, because that's how my young brain translated those thunder sound effects.

I remember a shopping trip to the local mall and seeing a display table of Michael Jackson books in one of its anchor stores, most notably in my mind was the book entitled Michael Jackson by Gordon Matthews. In another shopping trip, this time to the local grocery store, and seeing the March 19, 1984 issue of TIME Magazine featuring the iconic portrait of Michael Jackson painted by Andy Warhol on the cover. However, the first Michael Jackson items I received came as birthday gifts in 1985 — the Thriller 3D View-Master Gift Set and a Michael Jackson Cordless Electronic Microphone manufactured by LJN.

At age 9, the hardest thing was hearing some relatives of mine make jokes and say derogatory things about Michael Jackson. I was just a kid and Michael was a superhero to me — even his name was and still is magic to me. It hurt me to the point that I stopped listening to his music and acted like I didn’t like him. My fragile ego as a child didn’t want to be ridiculed for liking someone “weird," because then I would be perceived as weird.

It wasn’t until a fellow classmate dubbed me a cassette of Michael Jackson's Bad album that made me realize not everyone hated him. So, I learned to enjoy what I enjoyed, because people will always talk and have their opinions, right or wrong. But moreover, there was still fans of Michael Jackson out there. It was around this time I also started exploring Michael Jackson's back catalog with Off The Wall and Triumph being some of those late discoveries, because Bad and Thriller just wasn't enough—I wanted more.

I remember laying in bed late supposed to be sleeping because I had school the next day, but instead I laid there listening to music by Michael Jackson and The Jackson's through my headphones, focusing on every detail and nuance of each song. That's one thing I still love to this day about headphones — they allow you to hear finer details in the music; things you wouldn't normally notice on traditional speakers. To close out the 1980's, we took a family trip to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, where Michael Jackson's Captain EO was showing in 4D at EPCOT. It was a fantastic, immersive show and was the first 3D movie I had ever seen. I remember wanting to sneak the rigid purple 3D glasses out of the theater with me as a memento from the experience, but I couldn't bring myself to steal. So I reluctantly dropped them in the glasses return box at the exit door. I still kind of regret not taking them, especially with knowing those glasses are either in a landfill now or was recycled into something else plastic.

In the late 1980's, nearly five years after Thriller came out, I attended a friends Halloween costume party dressed up like Michael Jackson as his Thriller zombie, complete with green and black makeup on my face, a black curly wig, and the Thriller jacket replica I already had in my collection.

In the early 1990s, we started shopping the nearby flea market, which resulted in us discovered a booth that had some nice Michael Jackson-related items for sale that I would end up adding to my collection, like the Michael Jackson California Raisin figurine and full box of Topps Michael Jackson Series 1 Trading Cards. These items were oftentimes purchased by my mother since I was still too young to have a job of my own. With each trip to that flea market, stopping to shop his booth for new Michael Jackson memorabilia was an absolute necessity for me. In just a short time, a good business relationship was developed, but having him as a source only lasted a small handful of years, as I believe he moved his business elsewhere.

Now that I had grown a little older and was more aware of things, the announcement of Michael Jackson's short film Black Or White having its world premier during an episode of The Simpsons was the turning point when I became a mega-fan, as if my level of fandom wasn't big already. The release of the Dangerous album at the end of 1991 went on to become my all-time favorite Michael Jackson album. I repeatedly read the lyrics and liner notes, admired and studied the incredible album artwork, as well as watched each short film during their original premier and his Halftime Show during Super Bowl XXVII live as it happened.

Leading up to the premier of Michael Jackson's In The Closet short film, MTV's Most Wanted hosted a daily contest where one lucky winner from each episode would win a dinner with Michael at a celebration of the short film. While I did not win the contest, I did score a handful of commemorative-branded Dangerous album CDs — I have yet to find anyone else who has these, but I know they must be out there somewhere. I also joined a few different Michael Jackson fan clubs through the mail around this time.

Ahead of the release of Michael Jackson's ninth studio album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1995, You Are Not Alone was in heavy rotation on the mall-exclusive music channel at the shopping complex I was working at. It would later be released as an official single a few months later. For the whole duration of my employment there, I spent many lunch breaks shopping the music store for all the Michael Jackson, The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons music I could find. Soulsation! 25th Anniversary Collection is just one of the albums that came from many of those lunch break shopping sprees.

In the few years leading up to the release of his tenth studio album, Invincible, I recall hearing a radio report of Michael Jackson working on a new album. Even with the release of this album containing all new material, this decade was a period of little growth to my collection. I did manage to add some items to it though, like all five Invincible album colors — red, orange, green, blue and the standard white. As well as all the Special Edition reissues of Michael's previous studio albums, Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad and Dangerous. I believe this period of little growth was in part because Sony did little promotion for the album, so there just weren't as many Michael Jackson items being produced. Plus, I had other responsibilities now that I was living on my own. Sadly, this was also when my entire collection was kept in storage boxes due to frequent moves, but that would change in a handful of years. In the mid-2000s a few items came out I was wanting to add to the collection — The Ultimate Collection and Visionary: The Video Singles. While I did not add Visionary: The Video Singles until a few years later, I did get The Ultimate Collection as soon as it was available, as it was a chance for me to hear previously unreleased music.

Although the collection did not grow much, I still tuned in for each televised event Michael Jackson was involved with, such as Michael Jackson's 30th Anniversary Celebration and the documentary-style interview, Living with Michael Jackson. While it was refreshing and insightful to see Michael Jackson living his life in the reality show-esque Living with Michael Jackson, the interview portions left a bad taste in my mouth, because Martin Bashier did a huge disservice by manipulating the direction of the interview and used post-production techniques to cast Michael Jackson in a severely negative light to push an agenda onto the viewers. In addition to the special's television production crew, Michael thankfully also had a team of his own filming the same interview, which was released shortly thereafter as a rebuttal to the heavily manipulated Living with Michael Jackson, entitled The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See. Sadly though, the damage was already done...

The months following the airing of Living with Michael Jackson, a new molestation trial came about which later resulted in Michael Jackson's acquittal in 2005. Out mowing the lawn, my sister came to my house to tell me the verdict was about to be read. I immediately stopped what I was doing and headed inside to the television. From the first not guilty verdict to the last, I rejoiced and cried, because after more than ten years of Michael's image tainted by disgusting and malicious lies, his name was finally cleared with not guilty verdicts on all counts. This would be a fresh start, an opportunity for Michael to reclaim his King of Pop status for all the world to see again. 

A few short years later, Michael Jackson made the This Is It concerts announcement. It was finally his moment to show the rest of the world he's still the King of Pop. Or that's how it should have went...

In the middle of my work day on June 25, 2009, a coworker said the news is reporting Michael Jackson had died. I jumped up and had him repeat himself. In disbelief, because after so many false stories had been manufactured about Michael Jackson over the years, I wasn't so quick to blindly believe everything I heard. I hurried to the breakroom to find CNN and Fox News indeed reporting the death of Michael Jackson. I immediately rushed to my car and called my partner—whom had been on the phone with relatives orchestrating a way to come break the news to me. Though I already heard what had happened, my partner and sister came to see me shortly thereafter to offer support in my grief. The three of us sat in the car together, crying and embracing, trying to make sense of everything and feeling the tremendous sadness.

The days and weeks that followed I was glued to the TV news channels, trying to find out all the details I possibly could. I knew Michael Jackson had a prior history of dependency on pain medication, but this was different, as a doctor was administering this particular drug intravenously during Michael's slumber. Learning this drug is only used in hospital settings with the patient having their breathing and heart monitored during its use, Michael died because of this doctor's negligence. Had this drug been administered in the proper setting with proper monitoring as required, Michael would not have died.

I was sad from his death and angry at the event of which how he died, it was refreshing seeing the world love Michael again. I had not seen this level of outpouring love for Michael Jackson from the general public since the 1980's. It was almost like a phoenix rising from the ashes—everyone was celebrating Michael again. It's sad he wasn't here to feel all that love firsthand because the public for much of his life from the 1990's onward was not very kind to him.

Seeing clips of Michael Jackson rehearsing for his then-upcoming but ill-fated This Is It concerts during news coverages about his death and talks of a potential release of all the rehearsal footage in documentary-style made me happy knowing that all the hard work Michael was putting into the show would soon be seen by the public. We didn't get to see the concerts, but at least we would get to see what it would have been like. And that's when the Estate of Michael Jackson announced This Is It would have a theatrical release on October 28, 2009.

My sister and I went the opening weekend of Michael Jackson's This Is It and the entire movie theater was packed full to the brim with fans, many whom were wearing their favorite Michael Jackson t-shirt or dressed in his style. It was bittersweet watching This Is It knowing this really was it. The level of theatrics and large crew of dancers and musicians, all the singing and dancing, incredible stage outfits, and special effects they had planned for the live concerts was nothing short of phenomenal. Had the concerts happened, I have no doubt it would have been the greatest show ever.

With the outpour of love that occurred following Michael's death, came new licensing deals and merchandise, which helped ease some of the pain and allowed me to focus on expanding my collection at a speed it had never reached prior — even the local Walmart, CVS, and Lowes stores had Michael Jackson items for sale, like wristbands, button pins, stationary, and Christmas tree ornaments! 

Now settled in a home of my own, it was finally time for me to bring my Michael Jackson collection out of the storage boxes and totes they have been in for far too long. My partner and I drove to the nearest IKEA to get three large display cases — it was quite a feat finding a way to make them fit in his new Honda Accord coupe. And it being IKEA furniture, it took an entire evening assembling it all. But once they were in place, it was a great feeling having a space to finally display the collection again. After all, ten years had passed since I had a way to properly display it. 

Digging through all the totes and boxes was like Christmas morning, because so much time had passed I had forgotten about some of the things I already collected. Sorting through everything and opting to display the items by era, or album, it gave a feeling I hadn't felt since the early or mid-1990s. Once all the items were in their place, it was a sight to behold with the spotlights shining down and illuminating everything displayed behind glass doors. I had to be mindful of heat the (pre-LED era) spotlights put out, so the Michael Jackson Premium Swiss Chocolate Bars was placed on a shelf furthest away from the lights. I look forward to switching out the old spotlights with some Philips Hue lightstrips eventually.

The resurgence of Michael Jackson love from everyone also birthed stage shows, like Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, a traveling show that blended the iconic dance moves, magic, and music of Michael Jackson with Cirque du Soleil's unique art, acrobatics, and theatrics. I purchased two premium VIP front row tickets for my sister and me. While the reviews from critics and fans varied, I absolutely loved the show. I thought it was a fantastic tribute, and it blended two things I previously enjoyed independently — Michael Jackson beginning when I was a child, and Cirque du Soleil beginning when I was a young adult.

Cirque du Soleil would also later open a whole new Michael Jackson show titled MJ One, exclusively at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

By this time in my life, I had all Michael Jackson's music, every short film or music video, a large collection that keeps growing to this day, but there was one thing I didn't have that I have wanted for a long time — a Michael Jackson tattoo. 

I scoured the internet looking for inspiration, thought about designs and even sketching out original ideas. I eventually gathered a collection of twelve different designs — all of Michael Jackson in various dance poses — then polled family and friends to have them pick the best one. With their help, I selected The Ultimate Collection album cover design, because it was easily recognizable and didn't contain a lot of detail that could potentially fade, blur or blowout over time. I also decided the ink color should be black, because I prefer high contrast in everything. An old friend was the tattoo artist. I drove 90 minutes to his house, and it took him a little over 2 hours from start to finish for the tattooing process, including the stenciling, prepping, inking, and clean up.

I intend on getting additional Michael Jackson tattoos some time in the future, including a detailed portrait and an original design inspired by Michael's iconic armband.

Sadly and regrettably, I never did have an opportunity to attend any Michael Jackson concert — never even got to see him in person. Partly because he stopped touring the United States when I was still a child. So when Moonwalker: The Reflection of Michael tribute show came around, I had to go. Though it wasn't the real deal, it was the closest I would ever get to experiencing a Michael Jackson concert. It was all make-believe but to some degree, I think it helped fill some of the void of me missing Michael. I can't imagine how I would have reacted if I ever had the opportunity to see the real Michael Jackson in person.