Getting Back on the Stage

At age five I begged my mom to let me take piano lessons and I pestered her until she caved. I took lessons for about 7 years. I was good at playing piano. One time I overheard some of my piano teacher’s other students talking about me after a recital and they said I was the best one there. It was fun to succeed.

Around age 12 I was preparing to play in a recital, but I was starting to get burned out. I didn't practice very much and during my song at the recital I started to lose track of where I was in the music. I couldn't get back on track and I started to panic. I stood up in the middle of the song and ran off of the stage. My mom felt bad for me so she took me to the local TCBY and bought me a huge cup of rainbow ice cream.

And you know what? I never took another piano lesson again after that day. I wish I could say that I had persevered, that I went back to taking lessons and didn't give up. But I was ashamed.

I had failed in front of everyone. And I was done.

I don’t like failing in front of people. I like it when everyone around me believes that I have things put together.

Lately I find myself wanting to be a writer, but there a few things that scare me about this new adventure. I’m scared that I might fail at writing and end up running off the stage all over again. I’m scared of the harsh criticism that writer’s face. I fear the intense vulnerability required in sharing my story. It would be so much easier to remain unseen.

But I am going to try.

So this is my first blog post ever.

And I hope to share many more with you.