So Billy Joel has been in the headlines recently due to crashing his car into a tree. When I was really young and had only been playing the piano for a couple of years, I dreamt that I would someday write and play songs like Billy Joel.

Being heavily self-conscious, I never pursued singing lessons, but I did continue piano lessons and practicing his songs. I bought the sheet music for his greatest hits and played them constantly, much to the annoyance of my sister who would practice Rachmaninoff and Chopin for hours on end.

I remember playing "Just The Way You Are" for a high school talent show and playing "She's Always A Woman" to impress a crush back then. In both cases, my heart was beating so rapidly and my palms would not stay dry. But in the second case, I actually thought I would die.