Blog Post #20: To Be Life-full

My therapist brought up a good point recently. I was telling him how I haven’t been practicing piano at all lately, and feeling guilty for it. As a piano performance major, shouldn’t I be dedicating every day to my instrument? But he helped me realize that my identity doesn’t need to be strictly, piano. I don’t need to put myself in such a small box. If I enjoy spending my time on other things too, shouldn’t I give myself the time to do them? To journal and write silly little blog posts, watch TV shows and go on walks, take myself thrift shopping and hang out with my sister? The goal, for me, isn’t to be an FCP (Famous Concert Pianist), filling my days traveling the world to perform in huge concert halls. Not at all. My goal is to be life-full. After all, there’s so much more to Laura than piano. There’s the Laura that loves to lay in the grass, the Laura that loves rainy days, the Laura that binge-watches TV shows (I started watching Light of my Lion today, highly recommend), the Laura that tries to cook pho, the Laura that squats down on the sidewalk to look for four-leaf clovers, and so many more. Infinitely more. I think most people are like that. The media loves people who do great things, who become the top 1% in one area, but I think being an ordinary person is pretty cool too. Without us, who would fill those huge concert halls? Who would watch the TV shows that go on to win film awards? Who would buy the ingredients from the stores to cook the pho? Being life-full doesn’t mean I have to give up striving to play the piano well. It just means that I am a rounded human being, and I think that’s a wonderful thing.