NOT MY PASSION

By Manuel C

When Mikayla Saquiton was just a child, she found herself watching videos on Youtube of talented people playing piano. She was inspired by what she saw and took it upon herself to try and learn piano. This inspiration and motivation would carry on for years to come. She committed herself to practicing and learning piano with an eagerness to learn.

As a young 5 year old girl, Saquiton was given a small piano. Her parents recognized her determination and were willing to support her in her endeavors.

This determination stems from her inspiration to start playing piano from watching others play. “I wanted to become one of those people,” said Saquiton.

Immediately upon receiving her piano, she started to play and wouldn’t stop. It would be a few years before she would get professional piano lessons at guitar center.

When the time came, Saquiton was enlisted to receive piano lessons at Guitar Center. At first, the lessons were demanding and difficult, but Saquiton would prevail. Her parents noticed something incredible, when her playing drastically improved and became much more polished.

Over the years, as she got older, Saquiton would have different reasons for playing piano. Since she was maturing, responsibilities and work were becoming the main focus in her life and she was getting more stressful. When asked if and why piano is relaxing for her, she responded with, “Because the music I play is relaxing and that's like my way of dealing with stress.”

Eventually, as Saquiton got older, she stopped playing piano to focus on higher priorities. After reflecting on herself, she found her favorite memory to be quitting the piano: “My favorite memory is quitting piano.” She said this was her favorite memory because even though she was incredibly skilled at piano, she didn’t have much passion for playing the piano, and sometimes even hated playing piano:'' I never really liked playing piano, I just kinda picked it up and played. I want to do other things now.”

Aside from planning to get a higher education, Saquiton hasn’t planned to come back to playing piano: “I don’t even play piano anymore.”