Why You Should Try Stuff You Might Never Be Good At
Letting go of the desire to “win” isn’t easy, but it’s worth it
A few days ago, I gave my 16-year-old a trumpet.
He does not know the first thing about playing the trumpet — or playing any brass instrument for that matter. When he was younger, he dabbled in guitar briefly, and that’s been the extent of his musical training.
A few weeks earlier, we’d both been snacking on cheddar cheese and water crackers past midnight, which is when we conduct ninety percent of our conversations. I asked if he might want to get back into playing guitar over the summer. Or singing, maybe? For years, he’d sung with a well-known Brooklyn youth chorus and he happens to be very good at it.
“No,” he said. “But I’d like to play the trumpet.”
“The trumpet?” I repeated. ”Really?”
He explained that his burgeoning love for Bix Beiderbecke, the 1920s jazz cornet player, made him curious about trying his hand at the trumpet.
Honestly, the first thought that ran through my mind was “You can’t put that on a college application.”
I’m not proud of it. And I didn’t say it, of course.
