Race in about four hours

I’m all jittery. I always get like this before a race, where part of me is excited and ready, and part wants to hide behind the sofa until it’s over. What’s up with that? It’s not like I’m a contender for a medal or anything; I’m middle-to-back of the pack! Something about all that starting line energy and the sound of the pistol…

Okay, when I was in college, I had to do a senior recital on the piano (separate from my composition recital, where I programmed works I’d written). It was a graduation requirement, so even though I really didn’t want to do it, I had to. Actually, the requirement only stated that I do a half-recital (split at the intermission with another performer) or play at a few college convocations, but my piano teacher was whacked out on something and had me work up enough pieces that they filled a full recital’s worth of time. The college made me perform; she made me perform a lot. What they couldn’t make me do was advertise.

I put up posters, sure, just like everybody did. The time, date, and my name were in something like 6-point font at the bottom. I also scheduled the thing for early on a Sunday morning, when nobody would even be hanging out around the halls between practicing. I think there were only about eight people in the theater: Eric, my parents (Cory, were you there?), my teacher, two good friends who were in my piano studio, and a couple of Malaysian piano students who may have still been operating mostly on Malaysian time.

With all that, I was still petrified and excited, all at once. That’s what I’m feeling now.