By Chelsea Royer
We all have dreams as kids – large or small visions we intend to live out once adulthood rolls around. As we grow up, often those dreams change and we never actually accomplish as an adult what we planned to do as a child. And then there are some whose goals never waver – those who live to experience their dreams come true and who exhibit no less delight in them as an adult than they did at the age they first began to dream.
Griffin Hood, a 2014 Aberdeen High School graduate, has been a fan of drums for as long as he can remember. He grew up with drum sets in the house and listening to his dad and his older brother hammer out whatever beat struck their fancy. Hood recalls, “There’s always been a drum set in our basement…I used to have a kids drum set I’d beat up on when I was little and when I was about thirteen my dad got me my own (adult sized) drum set.”
Hood couldn’t wait for the time to come when he’d follow in his brother’s footsteps and play band in high school. “When my sister was in high school, we’d go to the football games, not to watch the team but to watch the band. I was super ecstatic for when I’d get to be in it. So when I got the chance, I ran with it. I got to play snare drum my freshman year which was my high school goal. I did that all four years,” says Hood.
His father’s love of music has been contagious for Hood as he has developed an appreciation for many genres of music. “Dad loves music and finding new artists. I think the story goes that he used to play saxaphone and then got braces and couldn’t do it anymore so he started on drums. He’s kind of a perfectionist so when he started drums, he decided he wanted to be the best he could be at it and started playing with groups around town,” Hood reflects. “I used to play with my dad a lot. We used to have two drumsets setup in our basement so we’d play at the same time and he’d teach me.”
Now, the little boy who couldn’t wait to play drums like his dad is a student at the University of Washington and will be playing cymbals in the UW marching band. In seventh grade, Hood’s older brother took him to see a Husky football game and in the midst of watching the band march out on the field said, “If you keep playing drums and practicing, that could be you out on the field one day.”
For Hood, that was all the encouragement he needed. “It just hit me that, whoah! I could go out there and do that – and it looks so awesome! So ever since, I kept thinking that I could go to every game, I could be out on the field and go out on all these trips and be playing drums and music. That sounded like a pretty good deal,” Hood said with a grin.
Hood has the privilege of rooming with one of his best friends from his high school band class during his upcoming year at the UW. One of the best parts of playing in band, Hood says, was getting to know the three guys with whom he is now close. He also enjoyed learning from band director, Daniel Patterson. “He’s kind of like an older brother to the percussion group,” explained Hood. With encouragement to trust in himself and his abilities, Hood expressed that Mr. Patterson will be an aspect he misses most about high school
With such a passion for drums, Hood surprisingly doesn’t see himself making a career out of the musical instrument. Instead, he has an interest in political science and sports writing or broadcasting. With two very different career interests, Hood explains, “I always hear, ‘do what you love and are interested in.’ Well, those are the things that interest me.” With hopes of bringing one of those interests back to Grays Harbor with him one day, Hood has never felt the need to leave his hometown for very long.
Perhaps one of Hood’s biggest encouragements, when it came to life and drums, was a piece of advice his dad gave him. “‘Every time you pick up a stick, you get better’ is what my dad always told me,” reflected Hood. “No matter what you’re practicing, just every time you hit the drums you’re getting better. It was a big encouragement when I was having trouble getting something or was practicing something really hard. I could know it was ok because I was making myself better.”
Now, with larger hurdles ahead, more music to learn and more books to study, Hood can carry this lesson with him. As he lives out his childhood dreams, he can know that so long as he puts his mind to it, he can only get better and he can only succeed – whether that’s at his drum set, at UW, or at living out his interests.
