As part of a project for a class that would probably be called AP Eccentricity, I composed a song for our high school concert band. The full title is “Awn Saum Bull: A Hymn for Her” (I was 16.) The band performed it at one of our concerts that year. No one seemed to hate it even though I was a total amateur. I learned a lot about music even though I’d been doing it for many years. It was a weird experience, but it was a valuable one. That was the first time I learned how to create something that complex, and I have flashbacks whenever I’m working on similar things to this day.