I'm Playing My Songs

Icebreaker Speech by TM Mayette Torreliza

Do you have a song in your life? It’s like when you hear that song you feel sad or happy. And you remind of someone or something you used to do when you were a kid. I prepared 3 songs and I want to share it with you. Like this song, “when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad.” (My Favorite things from Sound of Music)

My favorite things when I was a kid were my toys, my assembled toys like an empty box of hopia turning to a house, expired batteries as my people. I just put a name on every battery. Empty matchboxes as their beds, tables and chairs, I just cut it and used pages of my notebooks as clothes of my paper dolls. I used to play also when I was a kid the role of the teacher computing grades of my students. Who were my students at that time? Mostly they were singers like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, MC Hammer and etc. I just got their names in the song hits. I put their names on a sheet of paper and then put it in an empty can of Pringles or Picnic. And then I’ll pick their grade in another empty can from 75% as the lowest and 100% as the highest grade. Every quarter, I’ll pick a grade for each singer. Once completed, I will compute it to get the average. I’m just happy every time somebody gets the highest grade. Toys that are useless for others but for me can be recycled and I love playing alone because it’s easy to assemble and clean up my own mess.

In the family, I was the youngest. Mostly of our neighbors and relatives think that I’m the ugliest in the family because my siblings were both good looking and me, never mind. Mostly in weddings, they usually get them as the bridesmaid or assistant in veil, candles or cord. Me, I’m just there pretending that I don’t exist. We’ll its okay. I just told myself that I have to do something to keep myself busy so I could forget the bad things that my relatives and my neighbors told me. I decided to excel in school. I joined sports like table tennis and volleyball, ROTC just to become an officer and choir in church to share my talent in singing. My world changed and they started to notice me. I think God heard me just like this song, “but I see your true colours shining through, I see your true colours and that’s why I love you so don’t be afraid to let them shown your true colours, true colours are beautiful like a rainbow.” (True Colours by Cindy Lauper)

When I finished school and started working, my parents were so happy because finally somebody would help them in the household expenses. My sister got married at an early age and had 3 children and my brother was special, mentally incapacitated and couldn’t help them. I feel like I’m the eldest in the family. My mom was just a plain housewife and my father was a retired seaman and died last year. Now, I’m the breadwinner in the family. Sometimes I feel like I’m holding their baggage. They are trying to help me but they can’t carry it. My family is my inspiration. They keep me motivated to do well in everything. Even if I feel bad, they make me feel happy. This song strengthens me every time I hear it. “I’ll be alright, I’ll be okay, I will be fine and learning all the way. All from the heart, these things I do, I’ll make you proud because I do. I love you so.” (I’ll be alright by Sarah Geronimo)

Our life is like a song. We are the composer. We are responsible in putting the lyrics and the melody. Sometimes, we feel like we produce a bad song but this won’t stop us from composing again. All we have to do is to keep on playing our song. This would make us feel good because we work on it. Keep on believing that someday we’ll get the sound right.