Imagine you are sitting in your bedroom during the first Christmas since covid. You pick up your new instrument and try to play it right away only to hear the skin curling shriek come from it. You try again and the same ear bleeding sound erupts. You shove it to the side and flop on your bed letting a tired sign out. This is what I did every week for about 4 months. Who was the culprit for my frustration? A trumpet. 

Starting eighth grade online, in quarantine, during a pandemic was not ideal. There was nothing to do, except read, watch tv, and do the bi-weekly shopping I did with my mom. I wanted a new hobby. I wanted to learn a new instrument. This quarantine was the perfect time to do that. And with that idea, I began researching brass instruments on google and YouTube. I researched different cords, and notes, and how long it would take to reach the intermediate stage of learning to play them, most of them said at least two years. I thought this was perfect. The pandemic will last at least 2 years so I will probably be in 9th grade online. That should give me enough free time to learn this. But as my trumpet journey progressed I realized I did not have enough free time.

 Now that I knew what instrument I wanted to play, I looked for any tools or supplies I would need. Turns out you need many things to use and keep a trumpet in good shape. Valve oil, trumpet mute, polish, slide grease, etc. Luckily there were cleaning kits that had that. 

The next thing to do was start my persuasive piece to convince my mom to get me it. I wrote all the information in short bullet points and tried to be as clear and short as possible. I added other reasons I should get the trumpet, and pictures to convince her. I guess she liked my persuasive writing or at least thought it was funny because she shared it as I had just discovered Earth 2.0. But I was just glad it worked and I would have something to do in my downtime. 

That Christmas I got my trumpet, one of two presents I got that year. As soon as I got it I began to play it. Instead of sounding like a one-person marching band, it sounded like 100 cats scratching their nails across a blackboard. I tried to play quietly, which only worked for a few minutes so I left my trumpet for a few days. Over those days I decided to only practice between 2 and 4 so nobody's sleep was disturbed. I also thought it would be good to look up YouTube videos to help me. They didn’t help. Over 4 months I realized that I didn't have all the resources I needed to play and that the trumpet was more complicated than I thought. So I put the trumpet down and left it there, on a table next to my window where it is still sitting in summer 2022. Though I didn't learn to play the trumpet, I did learn that it is good to take risks and have new experiences even if they don't go as you thought. Also, if I'm interested in the topic I can write a decent paper.