After high school, I made what I thought was a firm, permanent, unchangeable decision. After 6 years, countless hours, and far too many athletic events, I was never, ever again going to participate in “pep band” in any sort of capacity. That resolution lasted approximately one year. By the end of my freshman year of college, I found myself registering to be a member of the Grizzly Marching Band here at the University of Montana.

Music has always been an important facet of my life, but it wasn’t until I started playing the flute in fifth grade that I realized how much I loved it. Coming from Twin Bridges, a Class C school, after the first two years of band in fifth and sixth grade, if we wanted to continue on with band, we became members of the “high school” band (which was really just anyone in band between 7th and 12th grade). Now, as many of you may know, sports are the lifeblood of any Class C school. This means that the justification for band is that not only is it concert band, but is also pep band, because if the arts aren’t supporting the athletics, then what’s the point?

So for the next six years, I attended every home football, volleyball, basketball game. I traveled to every playoff game, district, divisional, and state tournament that the school would send us to. I poured my heart and soul into my music, and I poured well over half the time of my entire high school career into pep band. Band was something that was incredibly important to me, and for being a small school, with a limited number of members, over half of which are seventh and eighth graders, we had a good pep band. However, that didn’t change the fact that many of my peers thought it was, in a word, lame. It wasn’t cool or even respectable to be in band.

After six years of being forced to be at every athletic event, feeling lesser because I was in band and not an athlete, and being looked down upon by the administration, I was completely determined to never be a part of a band that performs for athletics. However, I still loved music and I still wanted to continue playing my flute. So when I went to college, I joined the university’s concert band. I got to play beautiful music with people who appreciated that we were playing beautiful music to crowds that appreciated that we were playing beautiful music. For the first time in six years, I could play beautiful music without also being obligated to be a member of pep band, and play for people who didn’t really care about what we were doing.

But somehow, last May, after the end of my freshman year, I found myself staring at the registration form to join the Grizzly Marching Band. I’m not going to lie: Part of the draw was the scholarship. Part of it was that I missed being part of a “team”, and part of was just that it looked like fun. So I registered, entirely unsure of what to expect.

When I arrived at campus in mid-August, a week before classes started, for Marching Band Camp, I was in for a rude awakening. While I had plenty of experience playing music and being in pep band, I had never been in a marching band. We rehearsed for 10 hours a day, Monday through Friday. I returned to my dorm room each night in a state of sheer exhaustion and frustration. We learned the basic fundamentals of marching, such as the proper posture and how to hold your instrument, and how to march. In addition, we not only had to memorize the drills for the pregame and halftime shows, but we also had to memorize all the music that went along with it. It was completely overwhelming. And even though the others in my section assured me that it would all be worth it when we performed at the first game, I wasn’t so sure that it would be.

The Saturday after the first week of school was our first game. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a sporting event in my life. There was such a positive and excited energy floating around the music building that carried all the way through dress rehearsal to the end of the game. The hellish week of marching band camp was completely worth it. To play in a band surrounded by people who cared and were excited about what we were doing and to be surrounded by fans who cared about the band as its own entity...

To be a part of something larger than myself is a truly special experience, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of it. Thank you, GMB, for giving me a place to belong.