All My Blog's A Stage

SO at one point in my life, I was a baby. (I hear it’s a rather common thing.) My parents wanted me to grow up to be smart, and so they gave me apps that were supposed to be educational. One of these apps was called Baby Einstein, an app designed for brain growth featuring inverted colors, trippy music, and generally weird videos. It was essentially the stuff that would make a great ARG. It since has been made more child-friendly, but the 2000-2008 videos are wild. One of those videos featured a caterpillar pull-along toy in a black room with a piano piece playing in the background. Even at that age, I found the piece so beautiful that I wanted to hear it again and again. But, alas, I couldn’t find the video no matter where I looked. I was sad, but kept the piece in my head for years, hoping I’d find it once more.

One day, years later, my mother asked if I was interested in piano as a new music store was offering lessons. The piano piece was brought back to my mind at once, and I gladly agreed. I wanted to play it immediately, but I was only about six and no adult understood what I wanted. As my skill grew, my longing for that piece I had heard years ago did also. In a few years’ time, I was able to play songs and even some elementary pieces freely. I still wanted desperately to know the mystery song when my Piano teacher retired. Now at the age of ten, I was transferred to a new teacher, and then another when she moved. My current teacher had me play songs out of my comfort zone that stretched me.

My friend, Eva, also had this teacher, who I will refer to as Nicole. Nicole wanted us to play classical pieces, and the Romantic Era was a popular choice for this recital. If you’re not into Musical History, think Beethoven, Chopin, Lizt, and Mendelssohn. I’m on FaceTime with Eva one day a few weeks before our recital when she sits down at her piano. I don’t think anything of it until her piano belts out the song I had been hunting for years, just an octave higher.

The song’s name was Für Elise, one of the most famous piano pieces in the world.