Personal Narrative: Beating The Piano

Banging the piano as fast as I could was how I began my music journey as an eight-year-old, and just eight years later, I found myself preparing for a recital to receive my Diploma in Music Performance from the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music. The pressure of playing the most technical pieces at blistering tempos, with the inherent risk of a single wrong note ruining the performance, gave me joy like no other. Not knowing whether or not a mistake is imminent, my hours of practice would lead my fingers to the perfect performance: the performance of my life which led to certification as one of only forty-two musicians to receive the Diploma of Music Performance in the United States that year.
A bang is also what started the other half of my life. Competing at the
I thought my track season was over when torn hamstrings on both legs left me out of commission for six weeks. Hours of piano practice spent on highly technical pieces left my fingers and wrists strained to the point when they hurt to move. There was a point before the Diploma recital when there was a risk of me not being able to perform ever again. The symbiotic relationship between track and piano is really what allowed me to achieve so much. I would run whenever I could not play, and I would play whenever I could not run.
While I recovered from my injuries, music would accompany in my research in techniques for faster recovery. My research led me past the macro-level healing effects of stretching and nutrition to the micro-level of surgery and cell treatment. I found my future. Through my injuries in track and music, I was able to discover what I wanted to do with my life. By uncovering this path, my personal passions led me to my academic future and at Johns Hopkins, I hope to gain even more passions and even more incentive to keep pushing forward in