Apologies for missing Friday. I got super busy at work!
I don’t have many nostalgic periods of time in my life. If I had to pick one, it would probably be my time in marching band in high school. I loved being a part of something massive - we had a band of over 200 members. I was on the drumline for the majority of my time there, and we consistently had one of the top five drumlines in the state. I played snare in the marching band, and snare and bass for the indoor drumline. The competitions and the satisfaction of a clean run with the cheer of the crowd in the background is one of the best highs of adrenaline I’ve ever had.
As with anything though, marching band had it’s ups and downs. The practice schedule was rigorous for a high school student – 4 hours on Mondays, 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8-12 hour practices on Saturdays during the weekends that we didn’t have a competition. There was also a lot of drama – SOOOO much drama. He said this or this section did this or we hate this person because of this… the band was not excluded from the typical high school drama. I tried my best to stay out of it, but sometimes it dragged me down with the rest of those involved.
There’s three primary reasons why I enjoyed marching band and indoor drumline so much. Sure, I enjoyed music (and still do), but there was much more to it than that. The friendships that I had during marching band were some of the more fun friendships I’ve ever had. Marching band taught me discipline in a way that I would have a hard time learning on my own with the extensive practice schedule and high precision required of not only a member of a marching band, but even more so for a member of a drumline. Plus, the high of performances and waiting excitedly for your name to be called during the awards ceremony is still something that I’ve yet to find something else that matches how that made me feel.
I had great friends (and some not so great friends) during marching band. I unfortunately rarely talk to several of the people I was close to during marching band now, mainly because I moved away and a lot of my closer band friends still live back home. Reconnecting with several of these friends is as easy as reaching out to them through a text message or shooting them a message on Facebook. I do this from time to time, but admittedly not enough. Part of me knows that part of my life is in the past, and I shouldn’t force myself to rebuild a relationship that will only exist as long as I myself stoke it’s flame.
The discipline aspect of marching band is a lesson that is still one of the most powerful things that I learned in my entire high school career. It kept me from being a lazy and unproductive kid. It helped me break out of the stereotype of today’s younger generation – the stereotype that all of us are lazy, entitled, and don’t work at anything. It taught me the benefit of time management, and the awesome consequences of practicing something over and over again until you can perfect it. It taught me that when I feel like I can’t go any further or that I can’t do that one last run, I need to stop relying on my own motivation and do it. Motivation is fleeting and only comes around when its convenient. Discipline is constant and strong-willed and will come every time you muster it. I’ve strayed from that quite a bit in the past year or so. I hit the snooze button too often, or I’ll put off doing some work because I just “don’t feel like it.” Practicing discipline in everything I do – my work, my health, my relationships, my home – will do nothing but benefit me for years to come. The easiest way for me to start practicing this again is to simply not hit snooze when I wake up in the morning!
Motivation is fleeting and only comes around when its convenient. Discipline is constant and strong-willed and will come every time you muster it.
The most nostalgic aspect of marching band was the thrill of the performance and the satisfaction of the awards ceremony. It sucked when you didn’t get the place you expected, but it was amazing regardless. Sitting with your closest friends in anticipation of your organization’s name being called after an astounding performance is an experience I’ve never been able to recreate. I really don’t know what I could do to experience that again. I’m too old to consider a drum corps (nor would I be able to dedicate that much time to it), and there’s many other options to get the same experience. Maybe some day I could participate in an exhibition drum corps – one that has no strict age requirements and doesn’t compete.
Marching band was one of the better times that I’ve had in life so far, but it is part of my past. I learned several great lessons from it and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of it, but I’m happy with the way my life is moving now and I’ve made the decision to dedicate myself to other facets of life.