As many of you do know when I was in high school I did color guard. Color guard is when you spin flags/ weapons during marching band performances. My friend at the time introduced me to Winter Guard which is basically the same thing but only the guard preforming in competitions and it is a little more advanced. Now I knew about winter guard since day one of doing color guard but I decided to do it my senior year, thinking color guard would only be an interest that stayed in high school. But boy was I wrong. Entering college comes with a lot of stress, meaning all of the 1am fast food runs started to prove their point. I started to miss something; something felt like it was missing all the time but I did not know what it was. Currently I am in my second semester at STAC and I realized what it was, it was Winter Guard. I missed it so much I rejoined. The team is called Pegasus Too. The age limit is 21 so I thought to myself; doing this one more time will only make me happier and stronger. I missed performing so much and I wanted the taste of something different yet challenging so I can balance out that missing piece.
Being 20 now you would think I have people around me the same age or older, nope a lot of the girls/guys on the team are younger than me and much more talented in my opinion, even the people who are older much more talented than I. I am a person who admires talent so admiring all of them is just what I do; it makes me feel so honored to be on such a loving team with such loving and talented individuals. Everyone on the team is so amazing I am beyond lucky to call them “my” team. Even after long practices where I am sore and all I want to do is lay down, I just think to myself as I lay down “wow, thanks to color guard I finally feel more complete.”
Growing up getting yelled at was not something I was fond of, in fact I hated it so much I would just ignore the people yelling at me. I never knew anyone who liked getting yelled at so this is not really a surprise to many people. When I entered high school that feeling of people yelling at me did not bother me, the negative feedback I got from adults did not bother me as much as I thought it would. It’s all about having resilience and taking the negative feedback from others and growing. From the constant yelling I got in high school to do better and the similar and less harsh yelling I get at winter guard, I appreciate it. Please, tell me what I did wrong, I want nothing more than to make myself better. Maybe that is why in high school I got the award “most improved” because I only wanted to improve myself instead of not doing anything about it at all. Seeing myself grow in Pegasus once again is making me “relive my youth.” It is making me realize and learn that even if you stopped something for 2 years does not mean the muscles can forget.
A you tuber said this and this saying caught my attention and it is something that I relate too. “I do not have one talent that I am perfect at; I have many small talents that I am mediocre with so it looks like I am well-rounded.” It sounds pretty demeaning, but it is something that I shockingly admire, I am not perfect at color guard meaning it is not a huge major talent of mine, but I do have that as one of my many small talents that I am okay at and that is okay with me.
I am so happy I rejoined winter guard once again; it makes me a better person and makes me look forward to things. I am very thankful for that, excited for this season to be in full effect!