I love the piano. Even if I can't play well, I still love listening to its melodious sound.
When I was a kid, my mum brought me to our nearby community centre so I could attend class and learn the basics. However, my teacher soon went abroad and I didn't even pass Grade 1 and we stopped. It wasn't until I was an adult and had a career that I rekindled this love and bought this digital piano with my savings.
After stepping into motherhood, I let this big girl of mine try out formal one-on-one piano classes when she showed interest. It wasn't about wanting her to realise my unfulfilled dreams but to give her the opportunity to discover hers. Alas, after just a couple of months, she told me that she wasn't enjoying it and wanted to stop.
As a parent, how do you decide on when to push your kids to endure and carry on and when to let them have the freedom of choice? I found that a little hard at that time but for practical reasons - being able to save time and $$ and not having to bring the toddler Meimei along and loiter outside to wait for Jiejie's class to end, I allowed her to quit.
Years later, I realised it wasn't that she completely lost interest; she just didn't enjoy the learning part and wasn't happy. So, these days, we have been trying to learn on our own at a leisurely pace through online tutorials. For sure, we are far from good, we can't read scores, we can't play well and we don't even know how to use the sustain pedal, haha. But, to see her smile and know how she is now feeling the joy of learning, I don't regret my choice.
The best part? We all get to learn step by step together and feel a common sense of achievement when we accomplish something new. That bonding is so precious to me and while the girls see me as their music teacher (who has no background), I see them as my beacons of light who encourage me to become a better version of myself, to not give up on my childhood dreams and to believe that I can.
Happy to see you happy now, dear Angel. Hopefully, you can find your passion in life and have the determination, courage and strength to pursue your dreams. For you can and you will.
#ahappymum #piano #chaseyourdreams
