When I was 11, my parents gave me and my brother a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, and two years later, I received Guitar Hero: World Tour for my birthday. When my family and I played it together, I normally played lead guitar, as I was taking guitar lessons at the time, and my mother played the drums. My mom would sometimes "fail out" of the songs, so I tried my luck on the drums one time, and I realized I had a knack for it. When I was 14, my instructor moved his job to the local Sam Ash, and I had my parents drop me off a half hour early so I could fool around in the drum department before my lessons each week. The following year, I accidentally cut the tip of my left index finger with my then-new Winchester clip-folding knife. My finger otherwise healed fine, but the scar was right on the place where I would press down on the guitar strings, so I had to quit taking guitar lessons. I then played even more drums in Guitar Hero, and as I became more of a confident player, I began to play harder, and I eventually broke the drum controller. My parents said that it was probably about time to get me a real set, and that Christmas, I received a 14x6 Pearl Steel Shell snare, and after playing rudiments on it for a few hours, I said "I really like this snare, but where's the rest of the set?" A month later, we bought a (heavily) used Tama Stagestar set from a church friend, and three months later, I was in a band playing "Dammit" by Blink-182 for the high school talent show in May 2011. We also played in the 2012 and 2013 talent shows, the last one being days before my high school graduation. I used the Tama set faithfully until I scored an 8-piece PDP Double Drive kit plus hardware on September 27, 2015 for $650.
