Music has always been a part of my life since the day I was born. I grew up learning to play many different instruments as well as listening to many different types of music. My whole family contributed to this as well so when the option to become part of our schools orchestra came around in elementary school, my parents insisted that I join. I chose to play the violin because it has been passed down my family through generations.
At the start, orchestra was just an institution I was in because my parents wanted me to be. However as time passed I started to love it. Going to orchestra every day became an enjoyable routine. Starting my day off by playing music and talking to my friends was one of the best things about my junior high career. Everything else was changing while orchestra always stayed the same. It was something I could rely on to help me get through the drama of junior high.
By the time high school came around orchestra became sort of like a family. I had met many of my best friends through this program who are still my friends today. We always hung out together in our larger group of friends and we were always defined as the "orchestra group." This gave us a sense of belonging and set us apart from many other people in our school. We would always come out of orchestra in the morning humming the songs we had just rehearsed and sometimes they would get stuck in our head for the whole day. Some people may have found this annoying but my friends and I always found it cool how we could each hum our parts as well as we could play them.
At the very end of high school it set in that our journey together was about to end. We would always remain friends however the institution that brought us together was about to belong to the younger grades while we moved on to bigger and "better" things. Not many people outside of our orchestra group understood how important this institution was to us and how much of an impact it had on us. It brought all of us closer together through music which is the most universal of languages. Without orchestra I would not be who I am today.
I was involved in the music department as well, except I was in choir. I know exactly what you mean when you say you and your friend would go around humming the songs you learned because I would do the exact same thing! I would even take it a step further and sing the tunes. Unlike you I didn't have many friends in my choir class. We were friends in the room and shared a bond, but we didn't hang out outside of class. I guess I would say my group of friends and my choir classmates ran in different circles. This was sort of hard for me because my friends never understood my excitement about learning a new song, or about an upcoming performance or competition. They never wanted to listen to the youtube videos I would show them or would come to my performances. And I cannot tell you how annoyed they got of my incessant singing of choir songs. They didn't understand, so I am glad that I had the chance to be around people everyday who understood my passion for music!
ReplyDeleteI have a close friend who was in orchestra in high school as well and from an outsider's perspective, even I can see how it's a close-knit institution at most schools. I always admired her passion for being at every volunteer event or practice or class, it was like she always wanted to be involved with them in some way or another; a lot of her time went into it! And she remains good friends with a lot of those people and still goes back to the high school orchestra concerts and other events, so I think that's really cool.
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