Dear Marching Band,
Thank you. Thank you for the memories, friendships, and music you’ve given me. Thank you for making high school a bearable experience and for giving me the passion to learn more than to just bang a drum. But that just scratches the surface on things that you’ve taught me. You’ve given me more lessons than any other activity could have taught me.
I’ve learned responsibility and leadership, which are two of the most important things you need in college. If I could grab the attention of a hyperactive freshman, gathering some peers for a group project is a piece of cake. Having an entire section to look out for is pretty much quantum physics when compared to doing a group presentation and making a PowerPoint for them. I mean, honestly, with the leadership skills Marching Band taught me, I could probably herd cattle better than most farmers can.
I’ve learned about the importance of being a team player and realizing that you are a part of something bigger than you realize. You don’t realize it at first, but when you see the finished product of the show, you realized it wasn’t about you, it never was, it was about the bigger picture. It’s a humbling things and the kind of humble experiences like that teaches you more than you think about college. Being just another member in a marching band of 100 kids is pretty similar to being just another student in a 130 capacity biology lecture. There is no culture shock, because there is nothing that is different. Along with humbling members there are extreme obligations to teamwork and working together. There is no way to throw an entire 10 minute show without working together, similar to how it’s impossible to win a football game if the entire team hates on another. This works as much in real life as it does marching band. You learn how to stay civil and even if you loathe someone you can work with them, while ignoring the urge to punch them. Marching Band has taught me civility to such a point that I can probably do a group project with every single GOP candidate, all the FOXNEWS anchors, and the cast of Jersey Shore still make is completely possible to earn an A.
Marching Band also taught me the importance of communication. I figure because of the last year things I said, it goes without being said that I know how to communicate, but it goes beyond the normal work. I am no longer the introverted middle schooler I once was. I am an extrovert with some pretty impeccable communication skills. That’s all due to the stress of being a new freshman and having to make friends with the ten other kids in your section, and even further the other 90 kids in the entire band. That is like an obstacle course for an awkward underclassmen, an obstacle with like spikes and snakes and alligators. Getting through that makes any person able to go through the world talking to anyone like they’ve known them for years. This is a skills that I think I’m most grateful for and a skills that I cherish very much.
So, again, thank you marching band. Thank you for making 15-20 hours a week of my time feel like the best time of my life. Thank you for making four years of playing instruments, following dots, and memorizing music feel like it’s worth something. I do not doubt that most students involved with marching band are as grateful as I am to be a part of a great thing and I know that although it’s over I’ll never forget it, but who would even want to?
Sincerely,
Just another dot on the drill
