Thanks to you, I have a never-ending love for music that I will always cherish.

I still remember when you told me I was assigned to play french horn. I was ready to argue and negotiate because there was a flute that was passed down through the family, from my two aunts, to my cousin, to her sister, and just as I was ready to take it on as my own, you hit me with a curve ball that changed my life.

I didn't want to play horn. It was bigger than me at the time! How was I supposed to be good at something when I could barely even hold the instrument?

Eventually I sucked it up and tried my hardest because I needed a good grade. I remember at the end of my sixth grade year, we were supposed to pick what class we wanted to take for our art credit.

The options were Art I or to continue in Jr. High band. Believe it or not, I almost picked art. I thought it would've been painting and making sculptures all the time. All it took was my homeroom teacher reminding us that the art class was so much more than that, and I decided to keep playing that bulky brass instrument that I wasn't very good at playing. I sat 2nd and 3rd chair throughout 7th and 8th grade, and really just wasn't feeling it anymore.

Alas, I stuck through it.

Two years later, I was at the top of the section and on the Leadership Team for the High School Band. I had finally achieved what I reached for, and I wanted more. At the end of the year, I had earned the position of Assistant Drum Major.

I owed it all to you.

You believed in me from the very beginning, and I was finally at the top.

The following February, I auditioned for Drum Major again. As I was the most experienced candidate, I knew it was mine. Boy, was I wrong. I was hit when the odds turned against me, and I lost my spot on the line.

I didn't know what happened.

I wanted to quit and never look back, but alas, I trudged on. I went on with life, and the next morning, I was awarded with a first division medal for my performance on my horn solo.

That summer, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime -- to spend the season with a Drum Corps. I couldn't believe I had gotten to this point in my music career so quickly. It was all thanks to you I had this chance. I went through the season three hours from home, and my love for music only grew.

I returned for my senior year band camp, and got to serve as Section Leader yet again, teaching eight other horn players to be the best they could be. That marching season couldn't have gone any better. I was given a solo in the marching show, and we, as a band, made it to State Contest for the first time in the history of our band.

I took a solo to State in the spring, once again, all thanks to you.

Now here we are.

I went on to major in Music Education because I wanted to teach kids to love music the way you taught me. I joined the marching band at my university, and I am still as in love with music as I was in the ninth grade. Last spring, I was initiated into Tau Beta Sigma, a group dedicated to serving the marching band and promoting music in general.

However, I no longer study music.

Over the course of seven years, you helped me fall in love with music and the marching arts, and that's a job I will never do as well as you did. Thanks to you, my life still revolves around music, and I wouldn't have it any other way.