I'm Shipping Up to Boston in Real Life by Kareem Hamada

I’m shipping up to Boston in real life! Shipping up to Boston is not only a song I listen to, it’s a tradition I look forward to. The song is my dad’s favorite and also mine. It all started after a drum recital where I had to play the drum part of the song. It was about Three years ago, I was eleven and I had been playing the drums for four years already. My drum teacher, at the Milton High School where I take my lessons, told me that my drum style fit that of the Dropkick Murphy’s and asked me if I had ever heard their song “ Shipping up to Boston”. I asked him to play it for me and he did so on his IPad. I loved it because the beat, the tempo and the speed fit my speed, tempo and beat in every song I play or like to play. The drum part of the song made my heart race and I asked him if I could play it for the recital and he smiled because he knew I would ask him that and of course he agreed that it was the right song for me. I was so nervous to play the song at first, it was very difficult to keep up with the rhythm of the drummer, but after intense practice l nailed it. I went to the recital with my mom, my dad and my grand mother. I was wearing a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt and I had my favorite drumsticks with me, they were black with red and orange flames painted on them, I call them my “lucky sticks”. On the recital program, John, my drum teacher, put my piece at number fourteen. Recitals usually start from easiest to hardest. I was the fourteenth performance out of eighteen. My family sat in the third row of the auditorium of the High School and it was starting to get pretty crowded. My mom, before I went to the first row to take my seat with the rest of the drummers told me “ Kareem, you know what you’re doing, I’ve heard you play this piece over and over ,you can play with the Dropkick Murphy’s even” I thought that was funny. My dad didn’t say anything he just squeezed my shoulder. I know what that means, my dad is always proud of what I do even when I don’t do it that well. I had butterflies in my stomach and my hands were a bit sweaty. I was nervous. When it was my turn to play, John announced my name and my song and people were clapping because they all loved the song, I could see my dad standing up and walking to the side aisle and pressing the record button on his I phone, recording me playing the song. I sat down and adjusted the drums and cymbals to my height and nodded to John. He started the music and …I nailed it. My drum teacher was very happy, he knew it was not an easy piece to learn. My mom and grandmother were clapping and my dad was still recording. He keeps replaying this song to everyone he sees and he calls shipping up to Boston “ our song” and ever since that day, we got hooked. Every fall, another tradition kicks in; it’s the season of the Celtics games. My day and four of his coworkers have shared season tickets so we get to go to quite a few games, maybe 6 or 7 games a season. On our way to the Celtics games, my dad and I blast the song on his car radio and we sing along without noticing what people seeing us from the outside might be thinking. In our Celtics Jerseys and caps, my dad and I dance, sing and drum in the car. I drum the beat of the song on the dashboard and my dad sings off tune of course. The car is roaring like a dinosaur. The car is all black from the inside with the blue neon lights from the radio and dashboard and the green of our Jerseys make us look like the Blue Man Group but in Green. People often smile at us and give us the thumbs up because they know we are rooting for the Celtics with a song that reminds them of the day when the Red Sox won the championship and “Shipping up to Boston” was the song that was played on the Duck boats during the Winners Parade in Boston. The song gave us great energy and enthusiasm and puts a person in a good mood. The song also puts us in a competitive mood very good for rooting for the Celtics. When I hear the song on my way to the game, I feel the Celtics will win and they usually do. When they win, the crowd of people with beer breath and popcorn covered shirts jump up and yell. I do too and usually I lose my voice the next day. When the Celtics lose, we just say that another time, another car ride and another chance will come accompanied by the Dropkick Murphy’s of course and “ Shipping up to Boston” along for the car ride.