The apprehensive day that I have been preparing for a year has finally
arrived.
“Duangkamon
Huangphattarakul”, the voice from the counter interrupted me. As my heart starts
to beat faster, I made a short prayer before I went into that room. I was so
nervous, panicked, and tensed. My hands were full of sweat and my heart beats
so fast and loud that I can even hear it pumping as I made my way into the
room.
When I
step my foot into the room, my hands stopped sweating and became so cold and
numb. When I saw the exam teacher, I felt like my breath is about to stop. He
gave me a warm, gentle smile and asked me to take a sit. I also gave him a
smile and a wai trying to act calm, but actually inside of me, I’m freaking
out!
“Duangkamon,
can you play me some scales?” the exam teacher asked. Then I nodded without
really knowing what to play. So I paused for a few seconds. When I was about to
put my hands onto the piano, my hands were so cold that they started to quiver.
After I’ve tried to calm myself down, I started playing the scales. When I was
done with all the scales, I made a big sigh.
I got it here.
“(Sigh) Okay, I’m done with one section of the exam,” what I
said to myself in my mind.
“Okay, now please play your exercises and pieces,” the exam
teacher said.
By now,
I’m mellow because I'm not that nervous anymore. So, just right before I started playing my
exercises and pieces, I took a deep breath and wiped my sweat on my skirt. Then
I started playing. At the beginning of the pieces, I was playing quite okay,
but when there’s some mistake, I started to panic. As I continue playing the
pieces, my mind is all thinking, “Did I play well? What should I do?” Then I
manage to keep myself calm and finished all the pieces.
“Ahhhh, finally it’s the last
section of the exam!” I was think this in my mind, but at the same time, I was
thinking again about the pieces that I played just now, dubious that I’ll get
many deductions due to the mistakes that I made while playing them. While I was
still thinking about it, the teacher said, “Duangkamon, can you step to the
other side of the piano? Now, it’s the oral test.” Then I immediately stood up
and walked to the other side of the piano. Then the teacher started to play
some short pieces and asked me questions after he’s done playing. When he asked
me questions, my brain was totally blank. I didn’t know what to answer so I
paused for a few seconds and started to answer tentatively of whatever I could think of, but also worrying whether I'd answer anything gratuitous.
When I’m done answering, the
teacher said, “Congratulations, you’re done with your entire test. Now, you can
go out and relax!” and gave me a big smile. Then I made a big sigh, gave him a
smile, and walked out of the room with great relief.
“Finally…finally I’m done with my
test!”
