I was seventeen when greatness took its toll. There was this boy who was the same age as me. He almost beat me in one of the global competitions. I watched his performance as he did when I performed. The only reason he lost a point was that he slipped off a black key during a part of his song. Other than that he made no mistakes. In the back of my mind, I knew if he didn’t make that mistake I would have lost this competition. I promised myself I would not lose to him. Days leading up to the next competition I would allow myself to only have four hours of sleep and 20-minute break to eat my meals. I didn’t go to school nor go out of the house. Each precious second was spent perfecting the piece I was going to play. After two months of this type of training, my body started to deteriorate. My parents and teachers begged me to stop, but I kept going. I wasn’t going to rest until I secure all my chances of victory.

I fainted due to high fevers and a malnutrition body, a week before the competition. The doctors put me on bedrest and he won. I tried to pull myself back to the top. Back each time I do it my grasp on to greatness becomes weaker. Soon I was losing to younger prodigies. I started to experience panic attacks and have moments where I would black out.

My parents who tried their best to help me thought it was a good idea to place me in a summer camp. I was too tired to argue, so I took a few months away from the black and white keys. They wanted me to make friends and all that stuff children my age should be doing. They didn’t know the future...nothing they could have said or done could have prevented what was going to happen.