On Saturday, September 29, Bands of America Northwest Regionals came to the campus of Bowling Green State University. 25 bands from 5 different states showed up and competed for a score. Also in the exhibition twice was the Falcon Marching Band of BGSU, which is what I am a part of.

Not only did I get the experience to perform twice in the exhibition with the band, but I also got to volunteer some of my time to help the event run smoothly.

From 10:15 to 2, I helped out with monitoring the front ensemble in making sure they know where their warm-up area is and how much time they had left in their warm up. It took a lot of getting used to with figuring out what to do, but I was able to get the hang of it. There was also someone else there to show the front ensemble where they need to enter.

Now, this brought back a lot of memories of what I went through in high school. Why? Because I came from a competition marching band. My high school's marching band traveled around the northern Ohio area and sometimes even to Indiana to compete. My four years of doing competitive marching band opened my eyes to see how many hours and how much energy is put into creating amazing shows. This went for every competition marching band that I got to witness in my life.

So volunteering at the BOA competition that Saturday brought back the memories of how many hours were spent in making a quality competition show to show to many spectators at the shows I attended in high school.

I'm so glad that I did this volunteering experience, and I'm so glad that I decided to continue my marching band career into my college life.