Moonlight Sonata

My mom used to make me practice piano the second I came home from school each day. Sometimes I'd try to get extra muddy at soccer practice just so that I could stall with a shower (don't tell her that). During that moment when I stood in our foyer (just the tiles at our entrance, but now that we've remodeled, I feel that I should call it something fancier), the baby grand taunting me with its cold icy stare and jumbles of unmemorized phrases slushing around in my head, schoolwork seemed like a breath of fresh air.

I tried in vain to play the homework card time and again, a rat could have been conditioned faster. I'll practice my piano after I do my homework. My mom used to have a staple response: No. Unfortunately, she had pretty sound reasoning: Your work will always expand to fill the time you have. If you start your homework now, you'll just continue doing it until you decide to sleep. Parents are too wise for their own good.

These days, my every visit home is met with piano playing in some capacity. In fact, now it is the piano that keeps me from less preferable activities, say schoolwork and meetings. The music takes me back to a world where my biggest worry was Wednesday at 6 PM (my once-a-week piano lesson).

As I look forward to a less-structured life, I can only hope that I will fill my time pursuing, rather than avoiding, a diverse set of activities. You never know. At some point or another, the one aspect of your life you have always tried to escape may transform into your only escape.