#67. In the Dark (Thursday, August 14, 2003)

What was your best day…of pulling it off, despite some crazy circumstances taking place around you?

It had been an eventful summer so far. I had grown four inches. I had learned that girls were attractive (#101). I had also learned to swim, while subsequently forgetting how to walk. (One day my mom told me I was walking strangely. So I took notice. And of course, when you start noticing your walk, it becomes even more awkward. Which made her freak out even more. And so on.)

My Level 6 Piano Examination was scheduled for that Friday, and I had been going over my songs, studies, scales, triads, arpeggios, and ear exercises for the better part of two weeks¹. At that point in my life, besides being the only exams I ever had a chance of failing (#93), piano exams were also the source of the only medals hanging on my cabinet – so there was a lot at stake here.

Between all my last-minute cramming, I had to go for one final Thursday lesson before my exam.² And when I came home, I realized I had forgotten to lock the door. Now Ottawa is supposed to be a very safe city, but in that moment I felt very afraid. There was this dark, empty air in the entire house that gave me shivers. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that it was because the power had gone out.

It took me another two hours, after my family had come home safely, to recognize that this wasn’t some ordinary blackout. We dug up the two flashlights that were stored in our basement, had a feast with every perishable food item in our fridge, and hunted down my dad’s old handheld radio to listen to the updates throughout the night.

As we soon learned, it wasn’t just us but much of Ontario and the Northeast U.S. And they had no idea when it would end.

Considering my situation, I handled it amazingly well. I still don’t know how I managed to not freak out about no longer being able to practice³. I just remember going through that night with an unusual calmness and maturity that I cannot guarantee if the same thing happened any other time, and that’s what really made that day stand out.

I didn’t for one second expect the exam to be cancelled. And it wasn’t, as power returned the next morning – or at least at the Baptist church where I testing. I thought I did okay on the exam; about as well as my last two where I got in the low 70s. In hindsight, the examiner must have gone easy on me given the circumstances, as I returned from Disney World (#101) two weeks later to find out that I had gotten 82.

Darkness was my friend that night.

I got a head-start compared to #93.
This was better than my Level 5, where the morning of the exam my teacher pointed out about five things I was doing wrong with each song.
I did briefly try playing under a flashlight; that didn’t work out so well.