Also: If I knew at 11 what I know now — tenor sax instead of trumpet.

The thing about killing someone with an arrow is that you have to be really deliberate about it. You have to nock the arrow, pull it back, and aim it. There’s no, “It just went off in my hand!” with a bow. Mix archery with some common sense (“Hey kid, quit standing next to my target, are you daft?”) and it’s a pretty safe pastime. A Bic pen is a terrifying weapon in the right hands, but I’m not going to stop writing with one because of that.

Nabisco: cello is always on the table for young students. Strings and reeds seem to have similar learning curves in my experience, and band wasn’t worth listening to (without a parent’s love as filter) until high school, just like orchestra. The nice thing about the cello is that the playing position is very natural. Contrast with a violin or viola, where the left wrist is bent at an improbable angle, and the shoulders are all twisted around. Reed instruments like an oboe, sax, clarinet, etc. are also very natural. I’d argue that the strings are less prone to terrifying noises when played poorly than reeds, but they’re both pretty capable of awful sounds in inexperienced hands.

One of the finer moments in my life recently was when a friend, who I consider to be a much more accomplished musician than me, picked up my cello and immediately made awful dying-goose noises with it. It’s nice to be reminded every once in a while that your acquired skills are worth something. (He plays fretted instruments, so the bow and the lack of frets were killers for him.)