Things I Love: The Violin

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It's ironic that I now include the violin among the Things I Love. I started playing the violin in first grade, like many Asian kids. At first, the novelty was fun. I got to carry around a snappy black case with crushed velvet lining and inside was a shiny new violin. Amber blocks of rosin were squirreled away in little crushed velvet compartments (which, conveniently, also hid my prized Lisa Frank stickers. Score!) PLUS, I got out of class early to go to violin lessons. Double score!

I flew through The Suzuki Method. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Please. Song of The Wind? Cake. Bach's Minuets 1 through 3? Bring it x 3. I memorized each piece in record time and mellifluously performed them (in my humble, childish opinion) at school recitals. Hell yes, I was born to be a violin prodigy!

No, this is not me.

Then we moved onto more advanced pieces. But I never actually learned to read music in Book 1 of The Suzuki Method because it was easier to memorize how to play each piece rather than learn what those dotted, squiggly things on the page meant. No matter, I'll just keep do the same thing. It's gotten me this far, right? Except the more complex pieces required more practice and were harder to memorize.  I began to fight my mom tooth and nail when it came to practice time.  

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!11!!!!1!1"

Harmony turned to cacophony, screeching strings, and resentment. WHATTHEHELL, nobody else has to spend hours practicing. I have to go to lessons twice a week, AREYOUKIDDINGME? I need to go to Claudia's house so we can call up radio stations and request Stevie Wonder songs.

And so it went through third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. I faked it for eight years before I finally couldn't take it anymore. I quit the violin. *GASP* I know it killed my parents to let me quit, especially after they bought me my own violin. But we had bigger academic fish to fry and the fight could only be sustained on so many fronts. So the violin became the second casualty in the War of Academic Aggression. (The first casualty was Chinese school.)

In retrospect, I was just stubborn and lazy. Was it really so hard to learn how to read music? Perhaps I took Cyndi Lauper too much to heart - I mean, yes, girls just wanna have fun. But couldn't they have fun and hang on to extracurricular activities?

So now twenty years later, I find myself yearning to pick up the violin again and this time, doing it right.  I want to learn how to read music. I want to play Back, Mozart, and Schumann.

But I also want to start riding horses again, and I can't do both. Aaaack! I need a Time-Turner!

Here's the Million Dollar Question:

Which childhood hobby should I revive: horseback riding or the violin?

Help me decide!