05/26/25
Before You Take a Single Sip
I'm petting the cat who has finally sidled up to me after apprehensively keeping his or her distance the whole evening. My former piano professor's wife reminds me to wash my hands, lest I forgot and accidentally rub my face (which happened last time, left eyelid puffing up like Kirby).
It's after dinner. A casual conversation is taking place between both of our wives, while the professor and I silently blend into the background. The after effects of the marvelous picanha I had earlier are still lingering in my mouth.
During the meal my professor mentioned how he hopes to do this again in the future. Not just the dinner but the panel discussion that took place earlier that day—I was invited to present ideas about starting and running a "successful" piano studio for the piano college major audience.
"It would be good for the next crop of students to hear this message again in a few years," he says.
Next crop? A few years?
...
I always thought I was going to make it as a professional musician, get paid to play.
No, that's not quite right–I knew it would all work out.
But the years flew by after graduation. Reality hit hard, fast. Loans, bills, mortgage, marriage.
Life.
Things did end up working out, it just wasn't anything close to what I had imagined ...
... and it only took 15 years.
If only I wasn't so pigheaded, stubborn, cocky, assured ...
... so certain.
How?
I'm not so sure it could have ended up differently, unless my future self was magically transported to the past. But even then, it would have taken nothing short of being backhanded a couple thousand times for my past self to even begin to wake up.
How?
How do you teach someone not to touch the hot stove? It almost seems inconceivable you can learn your lesson without getting burned.
...
Sometime a year ago. I'm talking to my friend Josh during one of our regular Zoom meetings. The topic is how to prevent a member of the younger generation from making life-altering mistakes.
Years before that, he was said member of that generation. I'm surprised and I'm not, at how he's gone through nearly the same things that I did at his age. Much of it having to do with challenging situations that could have been avoided.
"I don't know," he says. "I honestly don't think it could have been any other way."
As we conclude our conversation, we settle on an old saying—you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
...