My first day of school

One week after we arrived in the US, my dad insisted it was time we start school. I knew two words of English: "yes" and "no", but I wasn't even sure in what context to use them. I thought I would dress in my best clothes, denim mini-skirt, striped red shirt and red patent-leather ballerinas. Oh, yeah, I blended in...like a clown at a wedding! All the other students were wearing western cut jeans, western shirts and cowboy boots. I must have looked like an alien to them. The principal looked at my transcripts, asked my father a few questions and told him I would be a freshman at 13...that's really how far behind American education was at the time. To give you an example, my math assignments in high school were similar to 4th grade math in Switzerland. I was asked to take a few math tests and it was determined I didn't need to take any math courses in high school, my knowledge had already surpassed their high school curriculum...so I was left with English and music, which are basically the only two classes I took in high school.
On my first day, I was taken to the music room and asked what instrument I was interested in playing. I told the teacher I wanted to play violin, to which he replied: "We ain't got none of those fancy instruments, but we do need a flute player!"
Thus started my initiation and infatuation with music, which lasts to this day! I played flute in symphony band, snare drum in marching band...then anytime we received a new instrument, I was the one assigned to learn to play it: oboe, bassoon, saxophone (man, did my dad hate that one!), marimbas...then finally, my junior year, we formed a jazz band and I became the drummer. I had never dreamed I would one day enjoy playing drums as much as I did back then... We won state competition my senior year, I was picked as the best drummer in the state and ended up playing with the honor roll band...
I kept playing drums through my college years, in my brother's various bands, then after college in a band with my friends from El Paso. I really miss those days...