Born in rural Jamaica, Dwayne Fields fell in love with nature as a child. Things changed when he moved to the U.K. at the age of six. After being a victim of gun violence, Fields had an epiphany. He completed a combined honors degree in psychology, international development, and business management and spent three years as an engineer for London Underground before following his passion and raising funds to reach the magnetic North Pole.
When did you discover you wanted to become an explorer?
I think every single person alive is born an explorer. I was lucky enough to be born in rural Jamaica, where I was able to go and explore the fields and forests around our house.
What made you take it a step further?
Well, when I left Jamaica, I was 6 years old, and I moved to London. Now the behaviors that I had, as a kid from rural Jamaica, I couldn’t make that transition comfortably to London living. I was this wild, feral kid, now in a city environment. To fit into this new world in London, I started to do what every other kid did. And I carried on putting myself second up until my early 20s, when an incident involving a gun being pulled on me, and the trigger being pulled, made me reassess my life. I thought to myself, who are you? And I couldn’t think of who I was. All I could think of was 6-year-old Dwayne being this wild, feral kid loving the outdoors, and I recreated that as an adult.
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