“Play It Forward made me realize that piano and instruments are amazing,” she says. “I love playing piano. I can play it for hours on end.” Zebbie, as everyone calls her, learned of PIF through an employee of her former middle school and signed up with the program more than a year ago. Since then, she has been gifted a piano through PIF and has taken lessons twice a week. She notes doing so has changed her life.

“Piano has certainly changed my work ethic,” she says. “I don’t procrastinate anymore because in lessons I have to have a song learned by the next time we meet, so it’s helped with procrastination. I would also say it’s helped with my mental health — every time I’m sad or I have a bad day, I go play piano and put my emotion in the music.”

“I think the most challenging parts were reading notes and trying to stay on beat and making sure I got the song in the right tempo; definitely trying to learn songs in general has always been hard for me because I’m a slow learner, and I have to do it multiple times to fully get it,” she says. “I usually approach these challenges by taking it slowly, learning it slowly and taking my time on reading notes.”

Zebbie has already performed at two PIF recitals and says she playing the piano allows her to express her feelings in a way she couldn’t prior to learning the instrument.