It was most likely 2012 [that’s the year I remember I started drumming]. I was so fond of the boys in my class. I was their ‘gee’ and at some point in my interaction with them I started copying the beats and noise they were making with their pens and hands on the desk. Subtly, I began to understand rhythm, it was reflex. I embraced drumming with no prior thought or barrier of “perhaps this is a guy thing, I should drop it”.
I began playing bit by bit with the band at the school assembly, thankfully my cool guy friends allowed me. But, with every attempt I made at playing the drums, I was met with two faces; the bad guy and the good guy. By “guy” I’m referring to my teachers back then 🏃🏾♀️ 💨.
At our morning assembly, excited to show my drumming prowess, I was met with the two faces, one that insisted I leave because I was playing rubbish and the other that encouraged me to continue and showed me how. Mr. Adekaunsi [the good guy] was really encouraging. I later reached out to him in Year 11, reminiscing on what he did and thanking him.
Then came a certain afternoon at the hall in the primary school, there was this hype “Woww, we have a female drummber in our school, she should play the drumset for us today…”. “Hold up!” I thought to myself, “uhm I can play that band drum, not the drumset”. I guess it’s safe to conclude that whatever I played that afternoon was catastrophic, but see .. I tried.
The next Sunday I ran to Uncle Ayo [the drummer in church at that time]. “Uncle Ayo, I want to learn how to play drums, please teach me". God bless the hearts of teachers like Uncle Ayo who looked at me with no hesitation and said “alright, we’ll begin next Sunday”. He went ahead to inform my mum and that was how I started drumming.
Well, I do not recall beating the drumset again at that primary school, not too long after; I was a primary school graduate 😎. My path continued with an amazing drummer, Mathematics, and Rubiks Cube teacher — Mr.Olawale, whom I met in secondary. I learn’t other intricacies of drumming, in the likes of various techniques and deeper concepts like .
It wasn’t so easy in secondary school, secondary school had bigger boys who were way better at playing the drums. When I started out at that school, the opportunities I had to drum were little. I embraced it; used every means to learn and get better. I watched carefully how other drummers played. I them. I’d run back to my hostel after Friday rehearsals to practice with my sticks on the bed. The averages combined and then I became good. Life went on from University till date, and I can say I’m certainly no longer that 8years old drummer.
Nothing would have happened if I stopped, if I was beat down by “I’m not getting it right”, “They are all better”, “Mr.Adeniyi doesn’t want me drumming, so what’s the point?”, “I should just stay as the grace drummer”…all of these with no attempts to be better. At most, drumming today would have been a throwback to a failed attempt.
You see, the . The little effort here, the little effort there, the persistence here, the persistence there. Perhaps you can relate, like that first soggy rice that I ever cooked, and now I can make a decent stir fry rice everyone loves at home.
There’s a gap between Day 1 and Day 5110. What fills that gap are all the attempts of trying. All these things compound.
So when I’m faced with a difficulty, like harnessing my “Technical Writing” skills amongst other thing I’m working on getting better at. I remind myself that this is still day 1, and the gap between day 1 and where I want to be , is to keep trying, to keep showing up, to stay curious, to keep practicing, to keep making mistakes, to keep unlearning and learning.
The key is to and keep trying. All your efforts compound…
It was all of them added together in an overall accumulation of effort applied in a consistent direction. Some pushes may have been bigger than others, but any single heave—no matter how large—reflects a small fraction of the entire cumulative effect upon the flywheel.
— Jim Collings [ ].
As my Spiritual Father said to me 7years ago, I also say to you…
Persevere and do not quench the spirit…
Brick by Brick things do compound.
That’s all for now, I'll talk on perseverance in another entry….
PS: Tell me one thing you'll keep trying to do.
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