After a stroke, I decided to learn piano. It felt like falling in love

This First Person column is written by Calgary resident Sandra Low. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

My heart was racing and I was nervous but excited at the same time. My body was vibrating and all my senses were heightened. 

The last time I had felt this way was when I was a teenager with school girl crushes. So was I in love? Was I developing a crush on my male piano teacher, almost 30 years my junior? 

But no. That wasn't it.

Let me back up. I suffered a stroke in March 2013, then mostly recovered and realized I had been incredibly lucky. I pledged not to waste my good fortune, but to follow my dreams no matter what.

Six months after the stroke, even before I went back to work, I enrolled in piano lessons.

Some people believe students can only learn music well when they're young. Financial problems meant I never had that chance as a child. But I had a dream, a passion and the conviction, and these beliefs did not deter 52-year-old me.

I learned slowly with my first teacher, pushing through the lingering memory deficits and fatigue from the stroke. Then after two years, I started with a man in his 20s. He seemed stern and austere. At our first lesson, he asked me how my previous teacher taught. I described how she would play each new song for me first and then help me figure it out.

"I won't be doing that," he said. "I expect you to learn the notes yourself and when I give you homework to practice, I expect you to practice. If I find that you are not practicing, I will ask the administration staff to transfer you to another teacher."

So I really practiced.

We plodded along for three months. At our last lesson before Christmas, he was uncharacteristically harsh — he criticized my poor form and said I played with wrong rhythm and tone.

I went home in a state of shock. 

But this was my dream. I wasn't going to give up without a fight. 

When I saw him in January, I played the same song again and then, staring straight ahead, in a rush said, "I practiced this piece about 500 times and I had thought about quitting after our last lesson but I am not going to."