Freshman year, Ella was my second roommate. She was pretty cool. Small girl, quiet like me. She was blonde, but she usually had various streaks of green or purple in her hair. She played snare drum in marching band.

She had this practice drum thingee: an 8 inch diameter face on a 2 or 3 inch platform, when you hit the sticks against it, it made noise, but it was not as loud as a real drum is. I was completely fascinated whenever she got it out to practice. Especially that "ra-ta-ta-tat" sound that snare drums are so good for.

One time I asked her if I could try. And I couldn't make that cool "ra-ta-tat" noise. I tried for several minutes, but I just could not hit the drum fast enough. Finally, I asked her how she did it. She showed me, you balance the drum sticks in your hand, just barely touch them, and then let the sticks bounce on the surface of the drum. Wow. And then, all of a sudden, I could make that "ra-tat" sound, too.

As another one of my roommates is fond of saying, "You have to lose control in order to gain it."

It's a pretty good philosophy for life, I think.