beingbeaple

When my Tita Gwapa bought my cousin an organ, I was immediately fascinated when I found out that by pressing the pink button on the keyboard I could listen to a very good rendition of Ballade Pour Adeline. Of course, when I listened to the song for the first time I had not an inkling about what its name was but over the years I got to hear it more often - think Gugmang Giahak background music. Although I’ve become quite fonder of Canon in D now - if that’s the title of the song Lloyd keeps playing on the school piano in Sir M’s Music Room - Ballade Pour Adeline still means much to me because it was the track that inspired me to take piano lessons.

I took piano from Ma’am Les - who happens to be Big Guy’s piano teacher, too - because her classroom was accessible to me (like duh, it’s like across the street from KHS). I’ve been taking lessons from her since I was a sophomore and it’s kind of funny to think that during my first recital - and during the second one, too, come to think of it - I stood out from the rest of my piano classmates because the guys in the first two rows were all kids and I was obviously the only high school student there.

It’s kind of sad to think that I don’t have as much passion, as much drive for playing the piano as I did before. I mean, I still love listening to my next door neighbor as he plays those Sunday golden oldies his mother likes so much but I just can’t connect with the instrument anymore.

I’m quitting piano class. So sad.

If someone would ask me though, I’d say I feel sadder about quitting Kumon - that’s this Math program that’s supposed to turn kids into Math geniuses if they only stick to the program right enough. Even though I sucked at Kumon - I had to repeat levels so many times because of my cursed carelessness - I actually really enjoyed the time I spent answering all those Math worksheets. Suddenly, I found myself looking forward to answering Math problems and I actually started using my brain in SIr Laga’s class - I actually think now! I even help my classmates in Math AND - this is the most drastically unbelievable part - I was even invited to take the MTG qualifying exam (I failed, of course, but still).

And I must agree with Sir Laga - I did improve in terms of Mathematical Ability. Think about it: since I was in second grade I’ve been trying to memorize the multiplication table but I wasn’t able to fully grasp it until last year when I joined Kumon. I mastered the multiplication after like one week of doing worksheets and I don’t even know how I did it. One day I just found myself breezing through 8 * 7 - the dilemma that used to stump me before.

Sigh.

If only times were better and I could take all the lessons I wanted to take. But times are hard and even for privileged kids like me - my family’s not rich but times are getting harder so come on, do try to understand - cost-cutting must be applied.

Besides, I can’t fit everything I want into my schedule. So there.

Poof!