New Year’s Eve, the sound of fireworks outside the house announces that year 2024 is gone and we are greeting year 2025. I think it’s going to be a very special year for us, because Sonny is starting a new chapter in his life.

Before Sonny graduated from high school, we discussed his further education. I only got high school grades so I would like him to get college or university education. Terry has university degrees, he think that it’s not necessary. Sonny doesn’t know what he wants to study. He doesn’t want to give 3 or 4 years commitment to something he’s s not sure. And he wonder if we have enough money to pay his tuition. Discussion of whether he would go to university continued for months. The good thing was that Sonny was patient with me. He listened to my strong opinion for him to go to university.

At that time, our piano tuner Mike mentioned a trade school in Boston, it has one year and two years piano tuning courses. Sonny expressed his interest, he would take the one year course and we could afford his one year’s tuition and living expenses. As time went on, I saw him become more and more determined with this idea. Slowly I accepted his decision and felt very happy about it. In this case, he was able to listen to the advice from us but also stick to the choice he made, which is the most gratifying thing for me.

After that decision was made, everything went very smoothly. In February he applied for the school, got video interview and accepted by the school. Terry spent sometime looking for a place to rent. At the end he found a studio apartment which is only ten minutes walk from the school.

In September we all flew to Boston, visited the school and helped Sonny settled into his apartment. We rented an apartment which was only five minutes walk to Sonny’s apartment. Terry’s niece Kendra came from Michigan to meet us there. She rented a car and took us to stores to buy daily necessities for Sonny. Her sister Mary is living in Boston. Two sisters bought a bed and a couch online for Sonny. With their assistance, very quickly Sonny’s room was ready to move in. We visited Mary’s home and spent some time together.

Terry’s good friend Mark also came to see us from Canada. I met Mark once that was before Sonny was born. Mark stayed with us, old friends got lots of things to talk. I enjoyed the conversation with Mark about many things too. He was only with us for a few days and we thought that was too short a time. We hoped that he would come and stay with us a month or two in the winter.

Sonny survived the cold winter. It was his first time to see snow and learned snow skating. He flew to Detroit to spend Thanksgiving at Kendra’s home. After one year of study, he successfully got the certificate of basic piano technology . Then he worked two months at Boston University Tanglewood Institute at the Tangelwood Music Festival. He said that he could confidently introduce himself as a piano tuner now after that working experience.

We are very happy to have him back home. He does some farm work with us and slowly pick up some piano tuning jobs. He is starting a new page of his life in 2025. We are embrace the arrival of New Year with good wishes.