Freshman year of high school was an odd time. Problems that I had then pale in comparison to the problems that I have now. All schoolwork and life problems aside, I was very focused on marching band that year and with doing better at the Upper State and State competitions.

We had put so much work into Elemental, it wasn't even funny. The Upper State competition was soon, and tensions were high to say the least. We had done so poorly with Praise that everyone was afraid of doing terrible again, and not even making it to State.

The day of Upper State finally came, and I, like everyone else, was extremely nervous. None so much as Mr. Dixon though. He has a funny habit of chewing the string of his hoodie when he's nervous; he always does it at performances.

We marched steadily to the field. I tried to calm myself as best I could. I always would get so nervous before marching onto the field. Then, Nathan called us to attention and before I knew it, the performance was already over. We left the field sweating and panting; we had given it our all. We wanted to prove to everyone that we were a great band and that last year's failure would not hold us back.

The time for awards came. We stood quietly in the stands and waited with bated breath. The voice called out the placements in our class, starting at the lowest and going up. Every time the announcer called out another band's name in the lower spots it was like my heart stopped because I knew that it meant that we were at least one spot higher than the band previously called.

Finally, we were announced as third place. It was honestly the best we had done and the highest we had placed all season. More importantly, it meant we were going to State for sure this year.

The prep week leading up to State was nothing short of tortuous. There is nothing that Dixon took more seriously. I remember that there was a particularly difficult passage in the music that the horns and saxophones played in unison, however, it was too difficult for the saxophones, so we always let the horns carry that section. When Dixon found out that we couldn't play the passage, he yelled at us, threatening to withhold our championship rings from us if we won. I had no idea that State was that serious.

We practiced harder than we ever had before, and it was finally time to show the judges what we were made of. This year, State was held during the day (it alternates every year). We marched onto the field in the harvest October sun, eyes squinting high into the sky, full of pride.

The performance I gave on that day was unlike anything prior, it was surely the best I had ever performed that show. I believe the same goes for everyone else in the band. We gave it our all, and we knew it.

When it was time for awards, we had to march out onto the field in a block as one band to accept the award, which was unlike anything we had ever done at any competition beforehand.

We had to stand very still, at attention. The announcer started with twelfth place...our name was not called. Relief. Eleventh place...not us. Relief. This continued on. Sixth place, fifth place. My heart was racing. I remember thinking that we might actually make the top three. The top three bands all get medals, so placing third or second is still a great honor.

Fourth place...I shut my eyes tight. I held my breath. My heart was beating so hard I thought for sure I would pass out. Not us, I thought, not us.

The announcer's booming voice rang out over the stadium- "The Blacksburg High School Marching Band," it exclaimed. Fourth place. We got fourth place. My heart suddenly plummeted a thousand feet into the deepest trench of the ocean. All of that hard work, and we don't even get top three?

Even though I was disappointed, I realized that we still did better than 8 other bands, which is quite an accomplishment. And we didn't get last place, so fourth didn't seem so bad. In fact, we were all pretty proud. We knew we could've done better, but we were still happy that we got the chance to prove ourselves.

So that's when the season ended. The ending of the band season always seemed to come so abruptly. It's like watching the sun set- you can see the sun slowly sinking behind the horizon, yet somehow the darkness still catches you by surprise.

Until next time- Raleigh Kennedy