Piano Recitals and Space Travel
I was 8 years old when I had my first piano recital. I remember they held it inside the elementary school’s gymnasium that also served as a theatre. It was the only elementary school for miles. They had to improvise. Ominously, the other performances were far from immaculate. Wrong notes were played, and unnatural pauses were present in the performances of those who had played the tunes blindfolded. Something about that stage caused everyone’s performances to fall short of expectations. Being a superstitious 8-year-old, I somehow came to the conclusion that the stage was cursed. As the recital went on and on, my fear incrementally increased. What if I can’t remember my fingering? What if the keys are slippery? What if I have to sneeze halfway through my performance?
I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I didn’t notice my name being called, or my piano instructor nudging me towards the stage. But I distinctly remember being offstage, and then, as if I had been teleported, onstage. I froze, standing as still as a dead man, in the middle of the colossal stage. My knees nearly buckled under my own weight, and my frail, 3’9’ frame shook. As my 8-year-old brain frantically calculated the benefits of …show more content…
I went through the details of the trip in my head. At 1015 I would enter the Time Machine. At 1030 I would be briefed once again about what to expect on my journey. At 1100 precisely, the Time Machine door would shut, and I would find myself in Times Square 1000 years before I was born. There, surrounded by rolling hills, old-growth forest, and rivers, I’d have less than 30 minutes to quickly take a few photos, and collect some dirt and vegetation samples for the biologists. Once time was up, I’d had to re-strap myself back into the Time Machine and return back to 2069 at 1130