| 「Just Laugh」
愛知県 南山中学校 ２年
加藤 千尋
I'm so nervous. Everyone's looking at me. I can't do it but I have to. And then I play the piano for my teacher and her students. And then it's over or so I think.
Later at home, my mother said,“Chihiro, you played terribly! You skipped notes, you missed notes, and you paused when you weren't supposed to.” And she went on and on.
Have you guessed my problem? I suffer from stage fright. Whenever I perform in front of people. I always lose my cool.
For example, once I practiced pretty hard for a singing test at school, but I still made tons of mistakes. When I saw all those eyes focusing their attention on me, I just broke out into a sweat, and my mind went blank. Instead of concentrating on the song, I was worried about what they thought about my appearance.
Recently, I had to perform in a piano contest and I knew I'd get nervous in front of the audience. I also knew that if I could somehow ignore their eyes, I'd be able to play well.
But how could I ignore those eyes?
Well, at the contest, I was sitting on the stool on stage in front of the grand piano. The spot light was on me. And all I could think of were those eyes on me. I said to my self, “Don't get nervous!”Then as I was about to play, I looked down and saw that I hadn't changed my shoes. I was wearing my orange sneakers. I was so embarrassed I couldn't stop laughing. But thanks to my shoes I felt so relaxed that I played beautifully.
People say in Japan, “Happiness comes to those who laugh”Well, they are right! My laughter took away my stage fright and gave me some happiness on stage.
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