I've been in the band since I was in the seventh grade, I played the clarinet and I absolutely fell in love with it. However, I didn't start marching band until I was in the ninth grade, and let me tell you that that was an entirely different experience. Marching band was way better than concert band in every shape and form, or at least I think so.
Don't get me wrong, I love concert band, but I really only like listening to it...not playing it. In the ninth grade, I marched my clarinet and our show was Bon Jovi, it was such an amazing experience that I thought I'd never leave my clarinet behind, but I did. I tried out for the color guard my sophomore year and quickly realized that that was what I wanted to do.
Colorguard was where I wanted/needed to be. I did color guard in high school up until senior year, when I was voted captain and that was such an amazing opportunity.
That leads us up to college band. My freshmen year of college (2016) I tried out for the Marching Southerners Colorguard, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done.
I remember my friend and I riding to JSU the next day for final auditions thinking, " It's not too late, we could turn around now." But we didn't and here we are three years later, still with this amazing program. The most asked question though is, "How do you survive band camp?" Well, let me give you ten for sure ways to surviving band camp.
1.WATER
Water is essential to surviving band camp! If you don't start drinking water at least three days before band camp you're gonna regret it. You're out in the heat at least part of your day, some of them are outside all day, if you don't drink enough water you'll get dehydrated and fall out.
However, yes you should definitely drink water, but you can't drink so much of it that you'll make yourself sick. There is a thing as drinking so much water you can dilute your blood.
2. SUNSCREEN
If you don't use sunscreen this is what you'll look like. Sunscreen helps prevent damage to the skin and if you wear it at band camp you won't be burnt to a crisp and absolutely miserable.
3. Pedialyte
Yes, it's for kids but if you get dehydrated this works wonders. I used it this past camp, along with my sister who drinks it pretty regularly. It doesn't have the best taste in the world, and doesn't quite taste like what they're suppose to, but it really works to keep you going.
4. Exercise
I complain about this all the time, but I'm so grateful that our captains took the time to make us exercise before our practices. Our show this year is so full of energy that if we hadn't done our PT songs, I'd never make it through. Even if you're not doing something that requires your full body you should at last stretch.
5. Hat/Sunglasses
GiphyThese are so helpful when it comes to outside blokes, especially for the colorguard. Now, a hat that big will just get in your way, but if that flag goes up and you can't see, you're gonna wish you had sunglasses or at least a hat. The hat also keeps sweat from pouring in your eyes.
6. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
You need to eat!! I know that they're are some people who don't eat breakfast, but you need to at least eat a granola bar. At lunch you need to eat something light like a sandwich, something along those lines, and at dinner you can eat a little bit heavier because the temperature has cooled off. YOU SHOULD NEVER EAT ANYTHING DAIRY! You will throw up.
7. Sleep
Get a good nights rest! You might think, "Oh, I'm fine. I can go party and still be alive tomorrow." And yes, some people can, but if you're only running on 3 hours of sleep and have a 9 AM to 10 PM practice, you're gonna get irritable and angry faster than usual. Your body needs rest after going all day at a nonstop speed.
8. Make friends.
If you're coming into a program where you don't know anyone, get to know someone. We have mixers, which is where we go section by section on different nights and try to make friends so that you're not alone within a sea of people.
Also, if you don't make friends, you'll feel isolated, and being isolated in a group of people could lead to dropping out because you don't feel sociably connected to someone.
9. Listen and do whatever the section leaders/captains tell you!!!!
They've been there longer, they know how this organization works, do what they say. If you do what they say most things will run smoothly.
10. You don't.
At the end of however long your band camp lasts, you're gonna be exhausted. You're gonna hurt. You're gonna be sore. You're gonna want to curl up and never move again.
