The Weekend Before Lesson Day
Coronavirus: Hey, I'm here. Going to disrupt your plans.
Piano Teacher: Uh oh. Who are you? I can still have people in my home and teach piano lessons, right?
Coronavirus: Maybe for a while, but you might want to plan on feeling a life-altering, paralyzing fear of online lessons coming your way. Ready?
Piano Teacher: Online?! How can I teach without my student right next to me?
Coronavirus: Unless you want to lose students, you better start setting up that webcam.
Piano Teacher: Webcam?!!
Coronavirus: [scoffing, to Influenza] They think I'm the flu.
Influenza: [chuckles]
Piano Teacher: Well, aren't you? Don't I need to just send home the sick student and credit him/her for a week's lesson?
Coronavirus: I'm going to be around waaaaaay longer than Influenza. He takes summers off, remember? My summer's about to get started.
Piano Teacher: [deep breath] Okay. Online lessons. I can do this. I just set my iPhone right here on the ke... [phone falls to the floor, after banging bass keys on the way down].
Coronavirus: [snickers]
Piano Teacher: I'll try my iPad. [loading Zoom]
Zoom: This iPad is too old for me. I'm not compatible. I need something newer. Best Buy is open now, isn't it?
Piano Teacher: [polling Facebook Piano Teachers' Group] What platform do you use for online lessons?
Facebook Piano Teachers' Group: 1,778 replies, each with varying and heated opinions
Piano Teacher: [reaches for Ibuprofen]

Lesson Day
Piano Teacher: [calls first student on FaceTime]
FaceTime: You need to get in touch with someone? Oh, you need Google Duo for this one. Android and all...
Chromebook: I already have Google Duo installed! I can do it, but I'm too cumbersome to sit on your music stand.
Google Duo: Where's your ethernet cable? I'm going to be really pixel-y without that. Your student will look sort of like an amoeba, but, I mean...you can hear.
Ethernet Cable, from Upstairs: I'm up here! ...coiled up under your husband's pants in his closet! I knew one day you'd need me.
Router: How many feet long is your cord, Ethernet?
Ethernet Cable: Not long enough.
Ethernet Cable and Router: [guffaw]
Piano Teacher: [praying]
Coronavirus: Got that set up yet?

Let me tell you about a student of mine. Every week, I see pictures of this student on Facebook living her young life. She loves to dance, and she loves horses. She goes to school, does homework, and cares for pets. She lives with her mom and dad, hangs with her grandparents, and does things that most families do; vacations, school plays, family dinners, anniversary celebrations, checkups at the doctor, birthday parties. And every ordinary week, when this student comes to play for me, something extraordinary happens.

Change is inevitable, and a pal of mine. I happen to be a person who loves to inhale the freshness of Change, and I look forward to its coming around regularly. Change and I get along well. We have a mutual respect, and my perspective is optimistic; that Change isn't necessarily restrictive. This year Change pushed me to grow, stretch, and expand in lots of ways; both tangibly and intangibly. Change is pretty excited about the studio expansion, and so am I. Change asked me the other day, "What if you fail?" and I didn't have an answer. Maybe because Change has never asked me that before, or maybe because it's not my assumption that failure is an option, I didn't have an answer. And in this unanswerable question lies the foundation of the heart of my buddy, Change. If we are positive we will not fail, are we destined to succeed?