I am a junior in high school.  I have been practicing a Chopin etude for a year.  I got a first place in the Northern Indiana School Band, Orchestra, and Vocal Association competition.  I am now at the state level where I have been watching and listening to the best piano students in Indiana.  It’s my turn, and I know that the worst thing I could do is to have a memory lapse.  I have just finished the first page, and I stop cold.  I can’t remember anything to even get started again.  The only thing I can do is start completely over, knowing that the best I can do now is get a 3rd or 4th place on a scale of 1st to 5th.  What am I going to do?

My goal now is simple: make music.  I did.  I came back, and not only got a 1st with the best points possible, the judge’s comment card came back with a single word on it.  The word Bravo was double underlined with an exclamation point!

The memories of this experience and others like it have sustained me through the worst times in my life.  That judge taught me that errors can be not only be forgiven, but forgotten.

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