Any musician who has ever worked with me is well aware of my competitive drive when it comes to music. As soon as I stepped into our first rehearsal I felt like I stepped out of a small pond into a shark tank–students half my age playing repertoire that even I found challenging, a complete percussion section, the incorporation of a youth drumming team, percussion soloists who executed patterns I wouldn’t imagine playing with surgical precision, etc. As for the concert itself, I am still reassembling pieces of my jaw after it dropped and hit the floor. The trip has shown me what can be accomplished if I embrace a more communal mindset, as opposed to a competitive one.