City of Love | m.yg

Chapter 35 {END}

Word Bank:
•je vais jouer (juh•vay•zhway): I will be playing
•une chanson originale (oon•shan•son•ori•zhi•nal): an original song
•elle s'appelle (el•sah•pel): it's name/her name
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5 Years Later

There I sat, finally a relatively respected concert pianist and composer, acting as an honorary alumni for my beloved university that helped me hone in on my skills.

It was surprising to hear from them, but my growing relevance in the classics sphere had reminded them of me and they had asked for me to come back and perform a song at the winter performance.

It was strange being back on a stage I had gotten so accustomed to after switching to stages in and out of Seoul.

The curtains opened revealing me to the unsuspecting parents and students. Some surprised gasps rippled through the auditorium while others whispered not-so-secretly.

"Bonjour! Je m'appelle Suzy Park! Je vais jouer une originale chanson. Elle s'appelle City of Love," I proudly introduced.

This was my prized composition I had been working on all throughout university.

The title was a bit misleading because it made it seem like an ode to my life in Paris, which was partially true. But it was more of an open-ended autobiography in the form of music.

I had always wanted to try to detail the process and moments of life in a song, and that's what I had tried to do with this.

The song started off rather dramatically in a glorious means to describe what I assumed my birth was like. Pain until an angel descended from heaven came out with her battle cry. Also known as me giving my mother a hard time from the second I was born.

It was meant to be a shocking start to the song to grab people's attention the same way a cry of a newborn baby did.

It quickly mellowed out to the pretty normal childhood I had. Up until my brother was born. The music got a little bitter the same way I felt when I realized I needed to share the attention.

But once the jealousy subsided, it was smooth sailing. The tempo and melody kicked up into a jaunt-esque major key, reflecting the joys of my youth and enjoying life for what it was without worrying about anything else.

Gradually that jaunt began to kick up more exuberantly with a minor key beginning to waft in. A person's worst nightmare of life. For everyone else at least. The teenaged years.

Full of raging hormones, fluctuating emotions, and confusion, the piece began to change keys every two measures to reflect that chaos of coming into yourself and becoming comfortable with who you were.

You could hear in the piece when I began to find myself and my passion solely rooted in piano by the calmer flows of melody. Romantic undertones began to flood in as the relationships started to take place. While they usually flopped, and that comedic tune could be heard, one could tell I was grateful for my relationships because they shaped me into who I am today.

The transition into university was a rocky one at first but slowly became a time of confidence as I truly honed in on my talents. Small samples from famous classical pieces as well as my favorite ones to play on the piano were able to sum up endless practice sessions and improvement.

There were little minor interlude moments that highlighted the fun I liked to have and the people I met. But they weren't super big because that part of my life didn't necessarily help me grow.