What Was I Made For

Program Notes

Barbie may be a toy, but it’s incredibly human to wonder about one’s purpose. Greta Gerwig explored the question “What Was I Made For?” so beautifully in the film that I wanted to take my arrangement on a similar journey from uncertainty to hope. For me, comfort isn’t found in discovering exactly what I was made for, but in being okay with the lifelong curiosity of its pursuit. Just when I think I’ve got it figured out, something happens – say, an encounter at a mojo dojo casa house, or a figurative corporate capitalist goose chase – and suddenly I’m left wondering again. Those are the times I find solace in returning to the last place I felt connected to purpose: to wherever “I used to float.” And so, this arrangement ends where Billie’s thoughtful lyrics begin, with a floating quality that might lead us to a bit of lightness before we all begin another cycle of questioning.