Point of view

"This is my only chance" I said to myself as I nervously walked into the exam room. Two weeks ago my piano teacher told me that at this rate I wouldn't be able to pass my grade 8 exam. As a 13 year old, I never tasted failure, and was never planning to. So everyday in the next too weeks I would bus for two hours to my teacher's house to make a final push. "Amazing enough", said my piano teacher, "I think you will be fine". Although I'm not sure if she actually meant I would be fine or she was just trying to comfort me, I sat in the waiting room expecting the worst. "Gregory, you're up next", yelled the lady in front of the examination room. All of a sudden the butterflies in my stomach roared as I stood up and walked towards the exam room. I calmed myself down my breathing deeply and slowly and the nerves went away momentarily. I went into the room uncomfortably, and awkwardly greeted the examiner.  Kind-heatedly, he directed me to warm up with the piano. I was already familiar with this piano since I had previously rehearsed in this room during the final two weeks, a strategy to make be score better. Furthermore I didn't want to leave a bad impression to the examiner by playing my pop music that I had focus my time on. As a result, I didn't quite really used the time I was given. The examiner wasn't even prepared when I told him that I was done warming up. "Let's start with the pieces", he said as he slowly walked towards the chair near mine. Things didn’t go according to play right from the beginning; I fumbled my first piece that was my best one. Although it wasn’t a huge mistake, the fact that it was supposed to be my best altered my confidence. After that, not only did I make some unusual mistakes, I also embarrassed during the oral exam. I was supposed to listen to a short segment twice before answering the question, but I instantly shouted out an answer after the first playing. He reminded me that there was one more time as he laughed. However, he also complimented me for getting it right in such a hurry. My face instantly turned red and so did my exam.

The boy walked into the room knowing that this is his last chance to pass the exam since he would be leaving the country. Although he might not be ready a few weeks ago, his commitment within his last two weeks had made he a contender. Everyday in the last two weeks he would work his best and even bused far to his teacher’s house for extra guidelines. When his name was called, his face turned pale and his palms sweated. He slowly walked into the examination room and was greeted by the examiner. Unexpected for a greet, as he was concentrating on the stakes of this exam, he responded with a late, awkward “hi”. The examiner then instructed the boy to get warmed up with the piano. Sat silently for a moment, the boy began to play some basic scales. As he was filling out the information on rubric, the examiner was surprised that the boy didn’t play any upcoming exam songs. The boy actually overthought that he believed that a poor performance on the warm up would lead to a bad impression. The boy soon finished his warm up told the examiner that he was ready. They started off with the boy’s best piece. Nevertheless, the nerves had made the boy performed unsteadily that he fumbled a few notes at the end. Although it wasn’t a huge mistake it cost him his confidence.  Later during the oral exam, he skipped his chance of listening to the piece twice and went straight to an answer. The examiner noticed how nervous the boy was and tried to comfort him by laughing off the fact that the boy still got the question right.