The Piano Lesson

Author: Lucas Nguyen

I hated piano when I was little. My teacher, Mrs. Lin, was strict and quiet, the kind of person who made silence louder.

One day, I told her I wanted to quit. She didn’t argue. She just said, “Then play this one song before you go. Something you’ll remember.”

I picked “Clair de Lune.” It was hard, and I stumbled through every measure. But when I finished, she smiled the first real smile I’d ever seen from her, and said, “Now you can stop.”

I did stop for years. But when I saw an old piano, my fingers knew exactly what to do.