Nationally recognized conservatory pianist...wants to quit.

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I will be heading into sophomore year in the fall, but due to time constraints, I have to quit something completely.</p>

<p>Pick two:</p>

<p>1) Piano
* conservatory student
* national awards
* local public performances</p>

<p>2) Business
* DECA state officer (likely to be state president if continue)
* placed Top 10 internationally in DECA
* local business reporter for my city's newspaper</p>

<p>3) Community Service
* community service club officer (likely to be club president if continue)
* club raised over $60K this year for local causes
* city youth council member
* Chamber of Commerce high school representative
* local library teen commissioner
* Prudential Spirit of Community Award state honoree</p>

<p>Even though piano is where I currently excel, it takes up the most time (4-6 hours every day), and I love business and community service so much more. Sometimes I slept at 3 because I have to finish schoolwork after practicing...and I was only a freshman this year.</p>

<p>Because I am Asian, playing piano might just seem like fitting the stereotype. This is what worries me most.</p>

<p>Is piano the right activity to drop?</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Sometimes, we answer our own questions.</p>

3

<p>what the…do you REALLY need to practice piano for FOUR to SIX hours a day? the most i practice is 2.</p>

4

<p>^ epigramimpelled, thanks for catching that. And you’re right, I probably will end up dropping piano. </p>

<p>However, in the interest of college admissions, would quitting piano be worth it? If I can’t get a lot of national recognition in community service or business, would quitting one of the other two be a better idea?</p>

<p>And thank you for taking the time to read my post. This decision means a lot to me because I love all three activities…although some more than others :)</p>

5

<p>don’t quit piano. you just need to cut off some of its time and you don’t really need anymore national recognition seeing as you already have it.</p>

6

<p>Do what you love more, that’s common sense. Don’t mean to sound blunt, but that’s the way it is.</p>

<p>You don’t need national recognition to look well in college admissions. It’s how you are as a person, not how you are received in the nation.</p>

7

<p>Lol. Way to live to get into college, and not living to do what you want to do.</p>

<p>You already said you enjoy the other 2 more; drop piano.</p>

8

<p>TRUFFLIEPUFF, yes I do. It’s hard for me to maintain my current level without lots of scales and virtuosic exercises, nevermind improve. However, if I were to quit piano and only play for fun, I would probably only play an hour a day.</p>

<p>mckyle, you’re right. However, I try to keep an eye on selective admissions while doing what I love.</p>

<p>And thanks everyone. I guess I should sacrifice piano to have more time for other things :slight_smile: …even though I honestly do enjoy all three activities.</p>

<p>Would those two be enough for highly selective college admissions (Ivy-caliber) though?</p>

9

<p>^ lol. well, do what you like but it just seems sort of eh to give up after playing for such a long time and puting in so much effort. at least do it as a hobby?</p>

10

<p>Don’t live for college admissions, really. That’s the advice I offer. How you interpret that, is up to you.</p>

11

<p>^^^ yes they would be enough as long as you work as hard as you did on them as in piano. also be sure to do not write that you quit/stopped playing piano on your college apps.</p>

12

<p>Again I say, do what you love. When you apply to colleges, show your love in your application. You sound like you want things to look good for your applications. As it seems, for you it seems that applications are a long way off. I would recommend relaxing and NOT doing things for the Ivy apps.</p>

13

<p>I agree with the other posters. Live for yourself, now. Not for college admissions. How many high school students do you think have national recognition for anything at all? And how many high school students go into college after their senior year? Lots, right? </p>

<p>Point is, national recognition is not necessary to get into college.</p>

<p>Or, another idea all together, if you’re truly torn and don’t want to give up either of the three …</p>

<p>Can’t you just go easy (or moderate) on one of the above? If you don’t want to give anything up at all, couldn’t you just start playing piano, say, whenever you can fit it in --until you’re out of high school or out of college? Even if that’s just an hour or two a week?</p>

<p>That’s what my son did. For him, it was violin and voice (opera). He was previously taking lessons in both, practicing both, and competing in both at the state level. (only once at the national level) At the beginning of senior year, he realized that he couldn’t keep it all up, and take a full AP course load, and remain at the top of his class, and continue to do his community service, and audition for college, and fill out applications, and play in the orchestra, and sing in the choir!</p>

<p>And so, he cut back significantly on the violin, stopped taking violin lessons, declined to audition at various violin competitions, and starting saying “no” more often to his community service "boss” and the orchestra director. (I mean, he stopped taking on so many commitments.)</p>

<p>That arrangement made him much happier. </p>

<p>In his first semester of college, he rarely even picked up his violin. He didn’t think he had the time to play. In his second semester of college, he began asking me if I would pay for violin lessons again. This summer, he’s been all over that thing – practicing 2 or 3 hours a day! For nothing in particular! No lessons, no competitions, no performances. He just loves playing it and misses it. He and I both think he sounds better than EVER! After a long break!</p>

<p>I think he made a really mature decision to back off and let some things go back then. </p>

<p>You may want to drop something completely. And that’s totally fine if you do. You have to take care of yourself. But if you really don’t want to drop any of them, can’t you just make a pact with yourself to say “no” more often and pursue one or more of them with much more moderation?</p>

14

<p>^ yeah that’s basically the message i wanted to get across</p>

15

<p>TRUFFLIEPUFF and MIThopeful, thanks for sticking around to offer your insight.</p>

<p>SimpleLife, thank you for offering your son as an example. I can definitely relate to how he might have felt at the time.</p>

<p>I will take all your advice to heart and focus my time more on business and community service. However, I have decided to continue with piano but less intensively as TRUFFLIEPUFF and SimpleLife suggested.</p>

<p>As for now, I will be concentrating my time with those two activities and keeping low key with piano. I don’t think I would be able to completely “quit” piano had I have chosen to drop it. It has been the biggest influence on my life thus far, and I can’t imagine it another way. Thanks to everyone for their input!</p>

<p>As for now, I will be staying off (and lurking most likely) of CC and enjoying my youth while I can :)</p>