The Sound of Music… and of My Life’s Journey?
My undiscovered relationship with the movie
For thirteen and a half years, I studied at a Catholic, convent school. Besides the kind of person I have grown up to be, the part of my schooling that has stuck with me the most has to be the Music classes. Taught to us by one devoted and gracefully aging Sandra ma’am, the classes were sprinkled with lessons of life and spirituality that she believed no other teacher would ever care to instruct us in. The memories I’ve made in the “music room” with our beloved ma’am playing her piano flawlessly, while my friends and I sang along, are some that I hold very close to my heart.
Among the countless little melodies that we were taught, I wish to talk here about one particular set of songs.
I must have been only ten years old when I missed a music class once, and hence didn’t own a copy of the song ‘Edelweiss’. For the rest of the year, I just sat there quietly whenever this song was played, unsure of the words and the rhythm. I hesitated to ask for help and chose to sit through two minutes of confusion every week.
A few years later, I came across the song ‘Do Re Mi’ in an abandoned music notebook. I made up the music to go along with it myself, imagining what these words sound like when sung and developing a certain secret relationship with them.
In seventh grade, my batch was taught a song that children around the world have, for decades, found respite in — My Favourite Things. In eighth grade, a song was about a wonderful girl we all imagined being friends with, Maria. Somewhere in the years that we loved and sang these tunes with our friends, we all grew up. I can still feel the reverberation of the music in my body, from the sound of the singing voices of an auditorium full of adults-in-the-making.
With the end of my school life, came an unexpected sadness, a feeling of helplessness, and anticipation of the great unknown that awaited me. On one particular day of heightened apprehension, as I sought comfort in the distraction of television, I discovered the movie The Sound of Music.
Imagine my surprise and awe, when I realized that a part of the songs I’d been taught at school were from this one lovely movie! Add to it the serene landscape of Austria, the backdrop of political turmoil, and the soothing voice of Julie Andrews.
What fascinated me further was the parallel I could draw between the songs and my personal life over the years.
Edelweiss: my experience with the song being a good example of how I’m forever scared to step up and ask for help, and of my lack of confidence in myself;
Do Re Mi: for my growing understanding and love of music, and the relationship I’ve built with it over the years;
My Favourite Things: reminding me of the simple, beautiful things in life;
Maria: to help me appreciate my sprightly side;
and the songs I hadn’t heard before: for the yet undiscovered parts of me.
Considering my experience with each of these songs, it only seems fitting that I was introduced to it in the last few months of my parting with the school. A farewell gift, as I choose to think of it.
This must be why I find myself going back to the movie so often. Even as I write this story, the movie plays in the background. It serves as a constant reminder to me, of the little girl I used to be, the personal growth I have undergone over the years, and the mountains I have yet to climb.
