At 10, I was taking special lessons to go to Julliard music
school. My mother was pressured by her friends and she went
along with it, and so did I.
But after six months, I had a flash of insight into the
lifestyle.
Learning to play to perfection. The structure. It felt like
being a potato going through a french fry cutter. I liked my
bumpiness, my skin, even the dirt stubbornly clinging to the
sides of the potato.
As soon as I understood the systems... the processes, the
structures of something, I wanted no part of it. I was satisfied
with knowing the structure they wanted and avoiding it.
Anyway, she understood when I said "I don't want to go." It was
one of most courageous things I did at the time, because as far
as I knew, this was The Road Set Out For Me.
