Inspirations

I went to visit someone pretty special last Saturday, someone who was a huge part of my childhood and teen years: my piano teacher, Ms. Petrossian. I started taking piano lessons when I was 7 and continued for 10 years. She was a world traveled single woman who lived through her students. She was also elderly when I started. But now seems to be the same spirited, young-at-heart burst of energy, despite some age inflicted health problems.

I started lessons with my older brother and sister, but I became the serious one about it. The others went off to college and I stuck with it until I went to college myself. I started composing songs when I was 15. They were nothing special, but my teacher seemed to love when I went to her with a new song.

I know it's a bit cliché, but she has always been a source of inspiration to me in how she perceives the world around her. It's very much the "gratitude for all your dreams that have come true" mentality that seems infectious around her. I hadn't seen her for 11 years and my mother suggested we visit her. So we did, and she passed on her uplifting outlook on life to me. Somehow, her words of wisdom managed to humble me. When I see a woman almost 3 times my age still teaching lessons and smiling like she's my age, things fall quickly into perspective.

Otherwise, I had a barbeque at my house on Sunday for the DC summer crowd (ANCA, Assembly, AYF). For once, the weather was somewhat tolerable to stand outside for more than moments at a time. It has been a seriously unbearable summer, and I can honestly say there hasn't been one single NICE day since May. But the other night was nice enough to sit outside at least.