the picture came with the papers by the way…
Music became his therapy! Translated…
Since my son was growing up, he’d loved, humming and singing the tunes, banging on the instruments, the first day of his first grade year, the teacher sent a “notice for new band member recruits”, I’d immediately encouraged my son to sign up, he’d chosen something that’s entirely foreign to him, the viola.
My son has Tourette’s Syndrome, from the second semester of his last year in kindergarten, he’s starting having the symptoms of nodding, winking, in first grade, he’d started, having a series of disruptive sounds like clearing his throat, sniffing his nose, etc., etc., etc., and sometimes, his behaviors would be misconstrued as acting up, misbehaving, and hyperactivity, and, when I’d taken him to the movies, the members of the audience would scold him.
The doctor told him, that this, was because the brain of the Tourette’s Syndrome individuals receiving too much stimuli, there’s an excess of energy, with no outlets, that, was why there are the involuntary, repeated behaviors (such as tics); just allow them to exercise more, or focus on one thing, then, the symptoms would get better. Naturally, when my son played the piano, the symptoms were, reduced, to a minimum, he’d enjoyed it very much too, and would often, hum the tunes that he’d played during the daytime in his sleep too.
When I saw the reports on how the child musical prodigy, Mozart may have Tourette’s Syndrome too, I’d started encouraging my son, “If a genius like Mozart needed to put in so much hard work, in order to excel, then, those of us who are not geniuses, must put in much more work.” My son heard me, at the second semester of his fourth grade year, he’d accepted the teacher’s recommendations, entered into a musical competition, to see how he compared to the others.
For the sake of just those three short minutes on stage, he’d practiced, endless, for four months on end, whether it be a measure, a note, or even, a rest, he’d worked really hard, to perfect it. But because the stresses piled on him, his symptoms worsened, every time he’d started practicing piano, he’d kept, shaking his head, shrugging his shoulders constantly. Being affected by these “tics”, he couldn’t concentrate on practicing, he’d become really upset, told me, “‘It’d kept bugging me, I can’t have a good practice session!”, although I felt bad about it, but I’d kept, encouraging him, “It’s there, to remind you, to focus on practicing more, we must, give thanks to it!”
On the day of the competition, everything went smoothly, my son had, only twitched his neck, just one, and he’d received the second-place trophy for the fourth graders.
Although this road of learning piano is filled with trials, but my son never told me he wanted to drop it. Of course, he would, every now and then, delay his practicing because of television, or video games, but every time I’d asked him, “Do you want to continue taking up piano lessons?”, he’d always answered, with that affirmative voice, “of course I will, even though, I’m NO Mozart, but, this, is my choice, I will NOT give it up!”
This, would be the commitment, the determination of this young child, and, having Tourette’s makes it harder for him to sit down and play, but, because this boy set a goal for himself, he was the one, who wanted this, and so, he will, keep pushing forth in it.
Life, the Obstacle Course 