I'm Declan, I'm 20 years old. I've lived here in McKinney for about 10 years now. I've traveled and lived in other places for small periods of time, but this has been my home base. When I was about 14 years old, I downloaded a trial version of a program called Ableton Live and started messing around with it. A few of my friends were doing it at the time, we all liked electronic music.
 
By downloaded this program and messing around with it, I learned the basic functions. I made little songs to compete with my friends and we shared our music with each other. It was never supposed to be a serious thing. When I turned 15, I came across an opportunity to take a masterclass with one of my favorite music producers. It was 600 bucks for a few weeks. I had some money but not enough so I struck a 50/50 deal with my parents. I took this course and I met a ton of people over the next few weeks.
 
I was only 15 so I had to lie about my age to get in because I was under the age limit of 18. They could tell that I clearly wasn't 18, but it didn't matter. I ended up making a lot of friends in that class. I met a bunch of guys that lived in LA who were trying to do the same thing. That’s when I started taking my journey seriously. After that course I had a solid group of people who I could bounce ideas off of and collaborate with.
 
For the next year, I produced for a few hours every day. I had a laptop that I would take to school, and I would produce it between and during classes. When I was just over 16 years old, I sent my first track to a record label called Melodica Music. It’s owned by Mark Pledger; he is a DJ from London. He responded almost immediately and asked if I would sign with him, I said yes. I was super excited about it. I signed and released it under my full name Declan Williamson. That was my first signing and release with a real record label. 
 
Later, I decided to change my production name to Declan James, because Declan Williamson wouldn't fit on a flyer. I had my first release as Declan James on a label called Reboot Recordings based out of New York. It was played the week of its release by a guy named Armin Van Buren. He is one of the biggest trance DJs in the world. From there it was picked up by a bunch of other DJs. It was a huge record and ended up doing like 600,000 plays on Spotify within the year, which was insane. Now I have transitioned to techno music.
 
Eventually I got some of my music picked up by a guy named Adam Beyer, who's the biggest techno DJ in the world. He invited me to open for him at EDC 2019, I accepted his offer. That was my first festival gig. I played to a crowd of about 15,000 people. That was my intro to techno, now that I've been in it for a few years. I am working on records and touring around when I get offers to play shows. 
 
I think being artistically minded and creative is emotionally difficult sometimes. I deal with a lot of anxiety and depression. I feel like my identity is so connected to my ability to create that when I can't create or I'm creating things that I'm not happy with, it really takes a toll on me emotionally. So that's something that I have struggled with for a long time. 
My favorite place I've traveled to has to be Zurich, Switzerland. I think it's the most beautiful place probably on earth, at least as far as I know of. I also love Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, I like Thailand, Bali, and Indonesia, they are beautiful. I think the city, Zurich, inspires me in a lot of ways. In terms of its energy, it's very calm for a large city while being extremely populated. I think it’s interesting and pretty unique. And the pace of life is very slow which I like. I feel like when I went there, I could think and breathe despite it being a big city and I loved that. I had the best of both worlds. 
 
I think with everything in life, but especially as you're transitioning from youth to adulthood, don't be so held up on holding on to things from your past. I think the transition is difficult. It can be rocky for a lot of people, myself included. Transitioning from being a teenager to a self-sufficient adult entails emotional and mental challenges. I think it's more about not being afraid to change as a person. Change is good and part of life, like experiencing mini deaths within yourself; getting rid of and letting things go that are not necessary for you as a person anymore. Something that I've learned is that over time, you just have to let stuff go within yourself, and don't be afraid to change. 

​A semi recent thing, is going through stage two breast cancer, surviving three years post chemo. I go by my chemo date of March 15th. I guess my most interesting story is that I had no idea that I even had the cancer in me. I went for my regular checkup and they saw something suspicious. It was a whirlwind of 18 months to two years of five surgeries, six rounds of chemo, six weeks of radiation and four months inside.
 
That was my most recent exciting story about me. Oh, before that, a year before I was diagnosed, I went to help take care of my mom who was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. Hers was a little bit different than mine, but also breast cancer. I had her teach me how to paint because she's a fantastic watercolor artist. I was 48 when she taught me. I got diagnosed at 49 and I've been painting and doing a whole bunch of fun art ever since. That's actually been a fabulous blessing in my life, and I love it. I absolutely love it. Now I do that, and I send happy mail out to people; I paint original pictures and stuff and send out cards to people. It’s very therapeutic. Very healing. 
 
I try to be an absorbent and caring person to people, and I think I thought it was pretty good at that. Once I went through this cancer, I learned that I can go even deeper. People experience a lot more behind their doors than I'm aware of. That gave me an even better insight into others, and that everybody has struggles that they're dealing with. I try to be really observant of others, and get inspiration, then reach out to talk to, and follow up with them. There's a lot of people out there who are suffering. One thing I also learned is once I was done with chemo, everybody kind of dropped off and stopped following up on me. But there's a whole other experience, the post cancer that not many people talk about, and that's been an interesting experience. Just dealing with your own emotions, your own feelings that you go through having gone through it, and then getting yourself back up into normal life.
 
Family was really important. My oldest son, Jake was very sweet and did not go off to a college far away. He stayed here and got his associates at Colin, and I had four of my five kids here. With my husband, there were six of us together, and they were my team. Then support from people who sent packages, and letters; I also learned that people rise to the occasion when someone is suffering. I was overwhelmed with love. I could look at cards and letters, which gave me great strength. Real letters are magical, you know, sending stuff in the mail. We still need our post offices. 
 
We’ve got five children, our oldest is married two years, married having a good fun adventure right now in her life. And then I've got four still at home. Jake is getting his bachelor's, and Drew is preparing to be a missionary for our church. The girls are both in high school. And what have I learned? We, personally as Hutto’s have had a lot of medical issues that we were dealt in our life. What I've learned is humor, lots of humor, and just being together, being by each other is super important. Being very open in our communication, expressing ourselves, and trying to not have anger come into things. Talking through things, that's been super important. Religiously, we keep real close to each other, faithful and hopeful. And we've been very blessed. So that's what I would say about my own personal family, my five kids and hubby.
 
We’ve been here almost 15 years, and we lived in Utah for the first 14 years of our marriage. We had an opportunity to come here, and David, my husband was going to do real estate, totally different, from what he was doing in Sandy, Utah. (Which is a lot like McKinney). I didn't know where in the world we were going to go in Texas. I just started looking and felt completely guided to McKinney multiple times. Even the neighborhood that we're in has been phenomenal. I love McKinney so much, and I've been very involved in the city, and in nonprofits over the last many years. I Just love it. My neighbors are fantastic. We're never going to move, David and I will be here, so the kids will come back. Because McKinney is our spot. I love it. Even our little house we've been in forever. That's the way I feel.
 
I feel I've been guided to work with our homeless population. I was on the breakfast crew all through the winter at the McKinney Salvation Army for our overnight warming station, that we finally got approved here in McKinney. I also washed towels, and have folded lots of socks, made hygiene kits, and stuff for Street Side Showers, which serves the homeless community. Lance and Hannah run that, and he brings the shower truck around to multiple places in a McKinney on Saturdays. Then the McKinney food pantry, I try to help with that, I'm on the McKinney Hunger-Free coalition. My family and I worked with the community food pantry and McKinney for five years. David's been on the board for ten plus years. I just love it; all the good that we can do right in our city.
 
I would end with this, I love that McKinney is a melting pot of many people from many walks of life, from many areas, and we've all ended up here. So many good and faithful hardworking people. And they all love McKinney. So, I love being a part of that!

​My kids make me tick in terms of helping them grow and succeed and have meaningful experiences in life. Also being able to teach them to serve others, to think of others instead of themselves. I think is something that I've enjoyed, seeing and watching my kids grow.
 
What has made me who I am? I would say being married previously for 26 years and having four children. One of my children suffers from bipolar disorder. So I have learned an incredible amount about mental health or mental illness, and I have learned patience. I think that probably one of the most valuable lessons I learned through it all is, to develop a deeper sense of empathy for people who have experienced, difficult things in their lives such as mental illness. That was kind of an awakening for me, that life is not always perfect. Sometimes it's far from perfect. But you have to look at what you can learn and glean from every experience. 
 
Developing a greater sense of empathy allows you to accept people no matter what their condition or situation is with far greater ability. And knowing that we're all so vastly different. We each have challenges and talents. Just for me, it was developing that greater sense of empathy and understanding that people are different. They may be so far from what you were, what your value system is, how you were raised, and how you think about certain things. And so, it really has, I think, broadened my perspective to be far more accepting of people. Taking them for who they are, where they are in life, and also trying to find ways I can help or offer guidance or assistance. That's a blessing in my life to be able to help others.
 
In my youth, when I was a Boy Scout, I was always fascinated with the beekeeping merit badge. At that time, you had to have an observation hive to work on the merit badge. I asked my grandfather who was good at woodworking, if he could help me make an observation hive. Which is basically a beehive with plexiglass sides so you could watch all the activity. My grandfather was a bit of a perfectionist and he felt it would be easier for him to just make it and give it to me for my birthday. 
 
It was sanded and painted, he used dovetailing and caulking; it was a piece of piece of art. I found a place where I could get a small hive. I put in the observation hive and then I began learning how beekeeping works, and I’ve just always had a fascination. Then, I grew up and went to college and got married. Probably about seven years ago, I got the bug, so to speak. I decided to do this as a full-fledged hobby. I ended up getting I think, four hives to start. And that's kind of how it all started. I actually found out through the hobby that I am allergic to bees, not to the point of dying, but it's a pretty bad reaction.
 
I am ultra-careful in terms of suiting up wearing the gloves up to my elbows, wearing cowboy boots that go up to my knees almost and I use a smoker. And so, I don't take any chances and I have only been stung a few times in my career hobby. But it's always a lesson in humility that you know, even though they're small creatures, they are very powerful and can inject a lethal dose of venomous venom to bring a man down. They are still a favorite thing to do.
 
Another thing I enjoy is going on bike rides. I also enjoy most water sports, so I love jet skis, boating, water skiing. I think anything with water is a very soothing and therapeutic place for me. 
I moved here (Collin County) for a job 21 years ago; that was three, three jobs ago. I moved to McKinney about two and a half years ago. I absolutely love it. For the last 20 years I always had land and space. So moving to McKinney was a very big change for me. I got used to not having neighbors and fences and all of that. And now, I have neighbors and fences, but I have learned to love my neighbors, to help them, and to serve them. I've had opportunities to do all of the above in McKinney, which has been great, kind of takes you out of your own self, out of your own world. And it's allowed me to broaden my perspective by helping, and serving others.