My first time in the spotlight. I don't mean my first choir concert where I was sharing the stage with thirty other little kids, but when I was practically the main attraction in one act.
It was the talent show in seventh grade. The song that I played on my piano in try-outs happened to be the same song a classmate was ballet dancing to so my act consisted of playing the music that accompanied her routine. The day performance for the student body went well. The evening performance wasn't so perfect. Two of the worst things happened to me during our performance. First there was a section of the piece that I sometimes messed up while practicing. I was taught that even if I mess up while playing I must continue the song as if nothing happened, as opposed to going back to where I messed up and play it again the right way. I messed up that part. I did what I wasn't supposed to and stopped, went back to the measure where I messed up and continued playing. Good thing, though, while in rehearsals our advisor told my classmate that if I ever mess up she should ad-lib a dance or two to make up for the extra time and that's what she did and made it look like nothing bad happened. This first blunder wasn't as bad as what came next.
Halfway through the song the mess up was forgotten about. Prior to going onstage I dealt with my nervousness by rolling up my music like a newspaper. I talked to my advisor if I could go without my music because I memorized the piece but she persuaded me to bring it up with me anyways. When I put it on the piano stand the edges of the music curled and just barely stayed on the piano. A few minutes of constant vibration from pounding on the piano made my music fall off the piano. The fall was excruciating to watch. I saw it float like a leaf to the ground in slow motion. My partner was dancing without a doubt in her mind but as I played I watched my music make it's way from in front of my face to the edge of the stage. I couldn't even imagine what the audience was thinking, whether they felt bad or wanted to laugh at what they just saw. I was so embarrassed. Even though I didn't mess up the music anytime after that I just wanted it to be over with and I can go crawl under a rock.
After the show everyone I talked to enjoyed our performance and most of them didn't notice me messing up or my music falling on the ground. Phew! I thought I'd be the biggest joke of the night.
