I was a band geek in high school, and I don't mean that casually. We didn't just play at halftime for the football game or march in the town Fourth of July parade. We did both of those things, and many more, but for my school marching band was a serious thing. We competed at the local, state, regional, and national levels, winning the national championship one year, and appeared in two nationally televised parades during my time in the band.
All of those performances meant we rehearsed pretty much constantly. We spent hours and hours every day out on the black pavement of our practice field, in either baking heat or freezing cold depending on the season, running though individual sets just one more time to make them that much more polished and perfect. Now that I've been out of band for a couple of years, it's almost surreal to watch our old Nationals performances and remember how much of my life was devoted to band. I'm not in college band, and I don't think I've touched my trumpet since leaving high school band. That said, my inner band geek hasn't completely disappeared, and there are some habits left over from my time as one that still stay with me to this day.
Whenever I'm walking next to someone else, I automatically match their stride and walking pace so that we're perfectly in sync. I don't even think about doing it; it just happens automatically. I take my first step with my left foot, always, and sometimes find myself counting my steps in groups of eight. Before high school I used to have terrible posture that my parents would always get on me about, but now I get compliments from people on how straight I stand. I never fidget. Ever.
If I'm standing and not currently doing something that requires movement, I'm perfectly still. Especially when I walk into a formal event or anywhere I feel I need to make a good impression, I can feel myself immediately revert to marching band posture. Whenever I watch a dance performance, I can tell if a performer is even a quarter of a count out of time. The smell of hairspray evokes more nostalgia for me than any other, because it reminds me of late nights spent on the bus with the other band girls spraying our hair into flawless buns so it would stay neatly under our shakos. If you are also a former or current band kid, you can probably relate to most if not all of these statements.
But more than all the little habits I picked up from my time in band, the thing I remember is the feeling of camaraderie with the other band kids. Through late nights, very early mornings, and many sweaty, exhausting hours spent together practicing, we were all working toward a common goal, and that was an amazing experience. Maybe once you've been a band geek, you stay one for life.
