A Crooked Kind of Perfect

“I told my mom that I wanted to be a prodigy, that I wanted to play Carnegie Hall. I told her I wanted to play the piano.”

Zoe has a dream of becoming a star pianist, and she already has a clear vision of what that is going to look like. She knows it starts with getting the instrument she needs, but she finds her mother is largely indifferent to her request and tells Zoe to ask her father about it. Because of this seemingly small decision, Zoe ends up with an organ rather than a piano.

“And with that he tore out the magical paper keyboard that was supposed to be my ticket to Carnegie Hall. For the first and only time, the paper keyboard made a sound: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrip.”

Zoe’s journey toward achieving her dream of playing the piano is filled with comedic moments, such as this scene in which she attends her first paper keyboard class. All of Zoe’s expectations are being met short, and it appears as though nothing is going to work out as she hoped. By Making the Most of Imperfection, Zoe slowly starts to find enjoyment in what she has, rather than what she wants.

“He was supposed to say, ‘My daughter is about to have a concert at Carnegie Hall. I just need to buy her a piano so she can start her lessons.’ But Dad was mesmerized by the boompa-chucka-boomp.”

Zoe’s hopes of what is going to happen are often very different from what actually happens, and her life is in many ways defined by Navigating Challenging Family Dynamics brought on by her father’s mental illness. Zoe’s dad is highly sensitive and impulsive, and the sound of