Promenade

I didn't know what promenade meant before today, that should tells you about the limit of my vocabulary and how poorly I did on the SAT English section. A promenade is a leisure walk, a nice stroll down a carefree street. It is also the title of a song that a little girl played today at my sister's piano recital, and it's nothing like the happy stroll that it's suppose to sound like.

Unlike what most people would assume, I like going to my sister's piano recitals. She and her peers are excellent players for their age, when you close your eyes and hear them play, you can feel the sound flowing through your body as it's telling you a story. My sister got 2nd place in the Yamaha competition as well as the Baker's Piano competition, and she's not the best player in her group. Annie's friend Isabelle had always intrigued me, Isabelle is a year younger than Annie, at first glance she's the quiet one that always smiles when you look at her, very innocent looking, fragile, like a porcelain doll. Her parents have been going through a nasty divorce for two years now. During the process, both Isabelle's mom and dad have been talking to parents within this Piano group. As usual, drama occurs and the soon-to-be divorced couple holds grudges against certain parents in the group. But that's all fine and dandy as long as it's behind the scenes... but today, of all the days, they decided to put on a mouth-off in front of all the kids, our hosts, and our teacher. Believe me, it's kind of entertaining watching a couple of mid-aged Chinese women going at it, because they have creative insults and you just can't wait to hear what kind of foul, yet revealing comeback is going to come out of the other person's mouth.

Sometimes I think little kids know more than we give them credit for. As these two women were at it, the girls were chattering - loudly, as if to drown out all those noises. When they were done chattering, one by one they went up to "try" the piano - loudly, to continue drowning out the noises that the moms were making. And as I observed these 6 girls doing their own thing, I once again noticed Isabelle. While the other girls were talking and looking at each other, she starred off into space with her blank eyes, paying no attention to her mom yelling away behind her. She was off in her own world... as it's probably the only way to endure it at her home, where the hostile atmosphere signals danger at any moment. When it was her turn to play, she had a song named Promenade, as the teacher explained what a promenade is, I expected a happy yet mellow tune, but Instead I heard sadness and detachment.

Isabelle, along with millions of other kids in America, are the products of a failed marriage. Their parents were once in love and they were made from that love, but when the feeling went away. They remained, suffering the consequences of the irresponsible mistakes that their parents made.

One of my cousins in China got married yesterday after only dating the guy for about a year. People say it's because she's pregnant. What a stupid, stupid mistake...