You may have spent your breaks near the cafe, blessed by the noise of someone rhythmically playing the drums in one of the practice rooms. That person is grade 11 student Matei R., who spends almost every free block in a practice room. Music is not his only passion though, he loves extreme sports like mountain biking and takes his camera everywhere to capture special moments. Matei came to AISB in grade 9, and he’s very grateful for his experiences to be able to go to a school that gives him the freedom to pursue his dreams. 

What follows is Matei’s story, in his own words: 

I was five when they told me: if you want to play the guitar, you should wait one year or two until your hands grow. But I didn’t want to wait, so I started playing drums. I hated it in the beginning. I felt kind of forced, because my parents were so excited about it. I saw their smiles everyday. Basically, it was my first lesson, and my teacher taught me how to play with a metronome. Just, like, four beats, you know. And, yeah, they were so happy to see it, me doing something musically related. But, I don’t know, I felt forced a bit when I was small.

Drums, I’d say it’s kind of my main thing. And yeah, that’s why I would recommend to many people, try and find an instrument, play it. It’s something special. It becomes something very special to you. You can call [playing musical instruments] free therapy sometimes. Well, they’re not free. But for me, if I need to get my mind off of something, I can play. 

I would love to be a musician. But now I realize I don’t really want to. Because it’s not very stable for me. I’m probably going to go into electrical engineering or something like that.

But un-music related, I do mountain biking, downhill racing. I love extreme sports. Skiing and mountain biking. It’s my favorite thing. But, I pretty much suck at other sports. Like everything. Because I’ve never actually had sports education, proper sports education like you have in this school. In this school, if you pick a random 6th grader, they’d probably clap me in basketball.

It’s because here you have the opportunities to do whatever you want. If you choose a path, you can stick to it. It’s offered to you. I had to figure out my paths and my parents have helped me a lot.