I don't know, it's like Halloween curses it or something. But it's sad. Don't get me wrong, lots of good things happen in October too, and I like the month! I just feel like every year, the hardest month is October.
Sorry for the rant there! Anyways.
Julie is moving...... She leaves for Texas this week. She sold her house and signed the papers on it about two weeks ago. I'm kind of devastated.......
Julie has been my piano teacher since I was 10 years old! That's almost 6 years now! We have had so many good memories together and I've learned an incredible amount for her. I remember when I first started taking from her. I'd already been in lessons for about four years, but I remember her pushing me really hard from the first week. For the first year probably, I came home crying, just so upset by the challenging pieces she wanted me to learn and the high expectations she had for me as a pianist. I only wanted to play the slow, pretty songs, and anything that was supposed to be played quickly just terrified me. I'd look at music and just give up.
Well now, I'm asking Julie if I can do extremely advanced pieces that she wouldn't have ever asked me to do! I've learned the value of hard work from her, and she honestly taught me to believe in myself. I have a littler plaque in my room that she gave me that says, "If you can believe, you can achieve!" She really has just always drilled that into my head, and it's paid off. I live for fast challenging pieces now, the slow ones bore me. I LOVE the feeling of polishing and perfecting a really long hard piece. It's such an accomplishment and you just feel so proud of yourself. I would never have gotten to this point if it wasn't for Julie.
She has taught me so many amazing practicing strategies and she believed in me at those early times I would never believe in myself. She is such an inspiration to me and she is a phenomenal pianist. I hope to be as good as she is one day.
I'm grateful for all the fun times we had at my lessons each week. Talking about our lives, she'd always listen to the frustrations I had, or the fun things I was doing. We almost never stopped laughing, and she really was just such a great friend to me.
She helped me so much with all of my pageants, and helped me to prepare my talent pieces for them. I remember the first one I ever did, being 13, the youngest in the pageant by two years, and being extremely nervous. Julie helped calm my nerves and just made me feel so much better. She offered advice, and even showed up to watch me compete. When I won, she couldn't have been happier for me, but honestly it had a lot to do with her. I never would have tried a difficult piece on my own at that age! Since then, she told me about when she did pageants! I thought it was so great to hear all her stories. She helped me with my pieces to perform my talent around Syracuse that year and in many pageants since.
I can't believe she is leaving.... I don't know what I'm going to do without her. I just love her and look up to her so much. I'll be forever grateful for her, and the things that she taught me. She is one amazing woman.
Pictures from a few of the piano recitals I did with her (And trust me, I know these aren't my best pictures!):
Oh the lovely braces days..... Haha.
This year's recital....
I've been so blessed to have her in my life! I'm really going to miss her.
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