Hello beautiful bastard,

Today was the first lesson for my piano, and I want to tell you all about it. The piano teacher is only a ten-minute drive from our workplace and he is Vietnamese too! Except, I didn’t know until the very end when I asked for his name—hehe. We learned through the very basics, going through a children’s book (which I purchased at the end). I still get a lot of nervous energy around him, and I’m not sure if that’s who he is naturally, or if he’s just a nervous teacher in general. Perhaps time will tell. I do like his teaching style though, which is a bit all over the place. He tries to keep things structured, but sometimes I’ll ask him a random advanced question, and he’ll get up, grab a book off his shelf, and answer the question by showing me an example, followed by something like, “but this is more advanced and down the track,” which I like because it gives me a glimpse of what’s ahead.

This is quite different to the approach that my vocal coach takes, because sometimes she’ll think in her head whether she should tell me something or not and decides against it because it might confuse me. I like both approaches, and it’s pretty fascinating how I managed to find two different teachers with wildly different styles.

To be honest, buddy, I feel like I am living life these days instead of just moving through it. I feel very lucky that I’m able to work in a job that I love, have a roof over my head, a car that works, be in good health, and have a family that’s healthy too. There isn’t too much stress happening in my life. I feel very lucky that I can manage my finances to allow these types of luxuries into my life. We’re spending like $200 a week on singing and piano lessons combined, which is a lot of money for most people, but I feel that I’m at a stage now where this amount, although a lot, doesn’t feel like wasted money. It’s very valuable because it’s giving me the experience of living life, and it makes life richer and more beautiful.

I guess you can contrast this with spending money on junk food, cigarettes, smokes, drugs, gambling—and I’d be very angry and disappointed in myself for wasting money that way. But this is different. This leads to growth, buddy.

I also found out one of the secrets to adulthood which many people will never experience, which is to spend money on teachers to speed up your learning. It’s really worth it. And it makes me look at myself and all the skills I have—like personal trainer, massage therapist—and how I should charge people when I teach them. Over the years, I’ve had people ask, and I’ve just done it out of kindness. But out of respect for me and my craft, I really need to start charging people. And you know what? The people who respect teachers and the work they do, they’ll happily pay. Just like I did.

Oh, speaking of which—today we went overtime by half an hour, and the piano teacher said I should just pay him for the 30 minutes, which I said okay to. But when I got in the car, I paid him for the full hour. I didn’t have to do that, but I did it because I respected his time and his craft, and I’m very proud of myself for that. That’s class, buddy. We could have saved $35, but the damage it would’ve done would outweigh just paying him properly. Now, gut feeling says he’ll pour more of himself into our future classes, because we’ve already established mutual respect. That’s another secret of adulthood. I’ll give you that one for free, dipshit.

Love you heaps. Chat soon. xx