TORONTO - It only took Jeramie White one day in prison before he knew he had to change his life.
The Toronto native was in his early 20s when he went to jail for robbery. He would go on to serve four years and during that time he started to do something he hadn't done before — think about his future.
"A lot of the reason I went to prison had to do with my attitude — the way I thought," the 29-year-old said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"I decided that I was going to take that time to change that in there.
"The first day I got in, I started saying to myself: 'OK, you know what? I knew this was going to happen. And now is my chance to either change my life around or continue exactly what I'm doing and get nothing out of it.'"
On Wednesday, White was one of 12 people to be honoured with the Fred Sherratt Award, granted by the charity MusiCounts and given to outstanding post-secondary graduates of Canadian music programs.
Just a few years ago, higher education seemed an impossibly lofty goal for White.
He had been obsessed with music his entire life, learning piano, saxophone and violin in his youth. White grew up listening to such hip hop heavyweights as Dr. Dre and Notorious B.I.G., and by 15 years old, he was already composing and producing hip hop and R&B music with his brother.
"We didn't have enough money to buy the beats, so I started making them," said White, who moved to Toronto from Nova Scotia when he was six years old.
"I eventually started recording my own music, because studio time — we found out — was expensive too."
Soon, however, White found himself straying down a different path. Though he declines to go into detail on the incident that landed him in jail, the experience certainly provided sufficient motivation to reassess his life.
While incarcerated, White began writing letters to an instructor at Trebas Institute, which offers entertainment-industry programs including audio engineering.
White was first simply interested in volunteering to help people learn some of the studio wizardry he'd picked up over the years, but through his correspondences he became inspired to pursue an education himself.
He graduated last year with a cumulative average of 96 per cent.
"I just saw it as a turning point in my life," he said.
And, even before he received this accolade, his life did change. He got hired as a technical service representative at a large company based in Niagara Falls, Ont., which specializes in audio-visual equipment and technical support. And he has a newborn baby at home.
He says he was "ecstatic" to receive the MusiCounts award. It comes with $3,500, money that White will use to buy a new Mac computer and monitor, the last two components he says he needs for his home studio.
But he says the money isn't as important as the message the prize carries.
"I had given up on myself at a certain point, where I started to think that I couldn't do it," he said.
"It fulfills me to know that I did it not only for myself, but I did it for my mom, and for my dad, who passed away when I was in prison. If he could be here right now just to see me getting this award, he would be so happy and so proud of me.
"I want people to look back on my life and not notice me for the negative things. I want to inspire people and change their lives through whatever medium it is, if it's music or education.
"To me, it's a fact that I took away from society. And now I'm trying to give back to society."
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On the Net: http://www.musicounts.ca/