Pay attention

Today, I went to a music practice room in Squires to get myself back into piano after I took about 3 months off after my stressful senior recital at the end of the school year this past summer. I had to concentrate harder to play the music smoothly and playing wasn’t as natural as it was three months ago. Playing alone in a square room for no one is different than practicing at home for my family to listen to whether they want to or not. If someone asked what I had been doing for the past 45 minutes and I responded that I played the piano in a music room, they might think I was strange to sit alone. I’m not a music major, I’m not even taking a class in the department. So they might wonder why I just go to the practice rooms and play. The reason I do so is because I enjoy playing the piano; I do it for myself. It is an acquired talent that I worked hard at for 11 years and I don’t want to forget how to play. Because I didn’t have an audience while I was playing and I didn’t have a goal of a specific number of measure I needed to memorize for the day, I found myself day-dreaming. I thought about how I wasn’t doing my homework and how much I had to do that night and I thought about the Outdoor Club interest meeting I was about to attend after playing. But after I find myself day-dreaming for a minute while playing, I make my mind snap back to what it’s supposed to be doing and make myself pay attention to the piano.