Music

What is the definition of a musician. But a loose definition, I would consider myself a musician.
When I was 10, a friend of mine started playing in a band. I had never thought of that before, so I decided I would do it as well. The West Van Band, at that time, was a very good band, I guess you would call it a brass band, not a marching band mind you, presentation band.
Anyways, I took up the trumpet which oddly enough ( :-) ) was what Gavin was playing as well.
Turned out, I was pretty good at it. Much better than Gavin, and I followed all of the way through the West Van Band, all of the way to the senior band.
At the same time, I had joined a couple of other bands as well as the orchestra at my high-school.
OK, I come from a wealthy community, the wealthiest (per capita) in Canada. The benefit of this was that our high-school had a lot of things which other schools could not afford. We had a full theatre and a computer. Without giving away my age, there were no personal computers back then, and I believe that we were the only school in the province to have a computer. I digress. High-School was really a good time for me. I was playing in the orchestra and also volunteering in the lighting/sound club. Our school had a pretty involved drama club, and once a year we put on a major musical production. The biggest, when I was in school, was Fiddler on the Roof. This was a mammoth production, but it was amazing to be a part of. I was at the school every day until late at night, weekends, all of the time and it was so much fun.

For a brief time, through all of this, I thought of music as a career. I am not sure I was good enough though, just a little under the bar which is set for someone who wants to do it professionally. Luckily, at the same time I had discovered computer-science and things were set.
NB: I had also considered being a doctor.

However, I have carried this love of music forward. I listen to all types of music, from classical, to light and heavier jazz, rock, country and varients. I am not a big fan of rap or some of the weirder stuff which is out there, but I can listen to it without committing suicide, and I do own a few rap CDs.
I am hoping to pass on my love of music to my kids, and teach them to listen to and appreciate all types of music. Usually, I have something different for them to hear when I come for a visit. A few years back I purchased a small MP3 player (hoping to get an i*Pod or the S*ny one soon), which the kids love. I have all of their favourites, or as many as 64MBytes will hold, which they can control. The bigger player will be nice as I could create playlists for each of them, and we could put songs that they like in there.

I am also hoping that the kids will be involved in music as they get older. I don't have a lot of control over this though, so I have to do what I can, when I can.