I’ve been a professional musician for 35 years and worked with hundreds of performers. My favorite performer was a ten year old, developmentally disabled boy.

I’d been hired for the summer to play at a resort where families visited. One of the highlights of the week was a Saturday night talent show and the people who were brave enough would get up to sing and dance or tell a few jokes. Everybody would enjoy it.

I used to spend time playing the piano in the great parlor of the resort. This little boy used to hang out there and listen to me play the piano. He didn’t fit in with the other kids. One day he asked me if I knew ‘A Little Help from my Friends’ from the Beatles. I played it and he sang it. He knew the song perfectly. He asked me if I thought he could be in the weekly talent show.

The next day he brought his parents. I told them that he wanted to be in the talent show. They were very hesitant. They said, ‘He’s never done anything like this, he’s so young, we’re really afraid for him.’ I said, ‘You know, he’ll be with me, I think he’ll be able to do it.’

The night of the talent show, he gets up there and he knocks it out of the park. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

I often think back to that aha moment. How much joy you can get out of helping somebody else. That inspired me to look into another career. I got my masters and began to work in the field of psychology and social work, working with kids.

I think an aha moment is like a little light bulb going off over your head. All of a sudden you’re surprised in a positive way. It makes you look at the world a little differently. And it stays with you.

I’ll never forget that kid. He changed my life.