"The Prize before the Goal: A Story of Focus"

"The Prize before the Goal: A Story of Focus"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

I woke to the sound of Aven packing up her laptop as she was done with the last of her exams. This was officially her last day of school and it has been an interesting journey to say the least. I have looked back on this time and I was happy that we were able to provide a stable environment for her in our house. She had given up her violin lessons to focus on her schooling and I appreciated the fact that Aven gave no fuss whatsoever when we told her about this. She had been doing great by her 3rd grading period and we wanted to make sure that she would carry the momentum to the last quarter. Her mom was very strict toward her but I have known that like my own mom she has a very soft spot for Aven.

So to motivate Aven her mom said that she can have the Midi she had always wanted , along with her Violin lessons if she did well on the last quarter. And so Aven buried herself in Performance tasks , passing it way in advance that her work became the model of other students. "Ganito dapat" the teachers would say of her work to her classmates. She reviewed until midnight , woke early to prepare and review her notes. She had increaser her tutorial lessons with her Teacher Cel and even attended Remedials even though she did not need to. 

The thing is on the start of the Final exams even before she could start on one her Midi arrived from Amazon. Her mom had ordered it in advance believing that it would arrive around the 3rd week of May , way beyond Aven and her classes. but Lo and behold here was the thing now , arriving on this crucial week.

Aven was excited to see this device of course , she had talked on and on about the things that she would like to experiment with and create for the summer , even creating a scheduler for the Summer(reminds me of the young me who had all summer events planned when I was her age). A solid 2 hours would be devoted to this Midi and creation of music. I was worried that it would distract her.  Instead she carefully arranged her dresser. Covered this in plastic and intensified her review even more. All while helping us around the house with her chores and helping us prepare for work.

I thought that the prize arriving before the actual work was done was distracting but here was Aven proving that it was not the case. So today , her last day of School she had brought out the Midi , set her Ipad , put on her lights on her dresser and worked on her first track. It featured a lot of relaxing Oriental Strings. I told her that it made me feel like I was having a massage somewhere minus the actual massage. Hahahahaha.

I told Aven that I can now make my Mumble Rap Album and do a few Ciphers now that I have her as my PD-nim. We are in discussions on her PD Name hahaha.

.I am amazed at how Aven continues to grow as a person and express herself in various ways with her music. She makes us so proud every day. After all her hard work I believe that her mom would agree she really deserved this gift.