Regrets

Perhaps the greatest gift my parents ever gave me, beyond their unconditional love, is the gift of music. I was five years old when they acquired the family piano and gave me and my sisters the opportunity to learn to play. Their only condition was that once we started, we would not have the option of quitting until we were sixteen years old. With my five years of life experience, I considered all the implications and jumped in with both feet. There was never any doubt in my mind.

Within days I learned that time was relative. Thirty minutes of practice everyday did not seem like much when I considered how fast each episode of the Fintstones flew by. Yet a half hour is a lifetime when you are sitting at the piano, practicing a piece you hate, while outside your window all your friends are playing hockey within your peripheral vision. How I pleaded with my mom and dad to let me quit.

Mom and dad were true to their word. I spent the next eleven years studying through the Royal Conservatory because quitting before sixteen was not an option. My biggest regret in my life? Quitting piano at sixteen. Ah the folly of youth.

Studying the piano gave me an appreciation for music that I have since passed on to my own children. The discipline of the art, forced or not, has taught me to be to not be a quitter. I hold a black belt because of that piano. My experience with the piano reinforces what I have observed as a teacher — Children need the benefit of their parents' experience to make important decisions for them. If it were up to me, I would have quit piano before my sixth birthday. What a horrible loss that would have been.

Thank you mom and dad for looking out for me and making the right decisions for me. My only regret is that you gave me that much control at sixteen because my decision to quit was the wrong one.

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of parents.” - Jane D. Hull (b. 1935)