College Freshman Zachary Howard undecided about his future ahead

By: Danny Cacace

This is a picture of Zachary Howard back when he was playing drums in high school. Credit: Lexi Cacace

 Zachary Howard is a freshman at the College of Staten Island, where he’s figuring out what major and future job will work for him. 

 Howard’s mom, dad and step-dad all are part of the music world. His Mom is a singer, and his dad and step-dad are both drummers. Howard’s dad is a drummer for Pop Singer Avril Lavigne, and he’s been a drummer for her for a very long time.

Howard didn’t want to be like his family and get into the world of music when he starts out his life in the real world. He wanted to be different, and he felt like he had to adapt to their lifestyle which is what Howard is best known for: his ability to adapt quickly. 

He mentioned how his parents made him take piano lessons when he was a kid to start him out early to get him into music, which he hated. 

“All I wanted to do was play Spiderman: Friend or Foe for the Wii,” Howard said. “I just wanted to be like the other kids who got to do all that fun stuff.” 

A moment that stood out to him when he was a kid was when his mom was coming home with Howard’s brother after she just picked up his brother from school. She was about to walk in, and Howard made sure he cleaned all the dishes and made sure the house was spotless.

 Most importantly, he got his piano ready to play because he was going to play on the piano ‘Song of Storms’ from a Zelda video game. 

She was heavily impressed.

Howard was very stubborn and he mentioned and he really did not want to get into the music world just like his parents are. He felt like he had to, but he didn’t for a while. Howard also got accepted into the music program and his music teacher even compared Howard to Howard’s dad.

 “‘Oh, you’re like a mini version of your dad, we’ll take you,’” Howard said about what his music teacher told him when he got accepted into the music program in high school, but his music teacher said that if he made one mistake and he would be out of the program. “Well, I’m not going to embarrass my family name.”

Another moment that stood out to Howard was back in eighth grade where he impressed his music teacher by playing the piano in class one day. He was playing random notes while also playing on a synthesizer which made whatever he played sound so much better. 

His music teacher questioned him if he knew how to play the piano, and he just said, “Yeah, obviously.” 

Howard finally gave in after staying in the music program for a bit, and said he might want to pursue music as a future career path after all. He realized he doesn’t have to be like Tom Jones or Frank Sinatra to get into the music world, and he was finally okay with allowing himself into this world of music. 

He even taught himself how to play classical music even though he does not like it at all because it’s way too slow for him.

 He eventually became the percussion section leader in his high school’s marching band.

One last moment that really stood out to him was when his dad came back from being the drummer for The Lion King on Broadway. 

At that time Howard actually played excerpts from The Lion King in his senior year of high school, and his dad was in town to see him perform. His dad came to one of his shows, and realized right away that he was playing The Lion King and told him how impressed he was with his performance. 

His dad’s praise made him feel really proud of himself.

Soon after, Howard got a $1,000 percussion scholarship due to his performance of The Lion King. He felt really honored that he was able to get this scholarship. 

Now, flash forward to his freshman year of college, where he is taking a music class called Rudiments. Rudiments is a class on how to read and write music and is basically an introductory music theory course. 

 He is taking classes that can count towards a music, psychology, English or political science major. He is not sure which path he wants to pursue yet, but he knows he has some time to think about which career path he wants to head right into.

 “I like that I’m in my freshman year,” Howard said. “I have enough time to consider what is best for me whether that’s music or some other type of career path.”