When I was a sophomore in high school, I decided to join the River Falls Color Guard. Partly because I had multiple friends in it and partly because it looked interesting and fun. I had always liked dancing as I danced for eight years when I was younger, however, I had no idea just how much this wonderful activity would teach me, not only about spinning a flag and dance but about life itself.
When I first joined guard, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had no idea how to spin or toss a flag. I had no idea what drill was. I had no idea how hard it truly was. All I knew is that I was ready to give it a go.
I remember my first few weeks of practices. I often felt lost, confused and frustrated. "Spinning a flag" was a lot harder than it looked! However, I did not want to fall behind the rest of the team. I wanted to keep up with the people that had been doing this for a year or two, so I decided to dedicate my free time to guard. Whenever I wasn't already at guard practice or at work, I would be outside practicing my spinning, my dancing, and my tossing. After not too long, I was really catching on and getting the hang of these things. Our show that year was called "Somewhere Over a Nightmare" and throughout learning that show and dedicating my time to perfecting it, I grew to love the activity more than anything else.
As our competition season went on, I began to realize that in this activity, I wasn't only learning how to dance and spin flags, I was learning lessons about life that I would carry with me for the rest of my years. Our guard team had a wonderful instructor, Mike. Mike pushed us very hard and didn't let us get away with anything mediocre. Although he was hard on us at times, I appreciated it. He was making us stronger, and he was making us better. Throughout our shows "The Crowning" and "Uncaged," I began to learn many things from Mike and color guard itself that I still think about and live out today.
One of the main things color guard and Mike taught me was dedication. If you're going to do something then you have to put your all into it. There is no point in doing anything if you're just going to do an "okay" job at it or slack at it. No matter what you do in life whether it's writing a paper, going to your job or playing a sport, you have to have to have to be dedicated to doing it. Otherwise, why even do it? What's the point?
Another thing that guard and Mike taught me was that being mediocre in life is something that you should never be or want to be. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that just live their lives day to day, doing the same things or not enjoying life. These people don't see the positive sides of things and they're okay with being just med. However, guard taught me to not ever be okay with that. Mike taught me to always strive to be something more. Always strive to be the absolute best you can be. Practice, keep trying and never give up. You can do anything you put your heart to.
One of the most important lessons that I learned from guard and Mike, though, would definitely be to live in the moment. Life happens in the blink of an eye and often times we don't fully live in the moment. We're too busy thinking about what comes next. However, living in the moment is very important as often times we regret not doing so when the moment becomes a memory.
Guard made a huge positive impact on my life. It was more than an activity to me. It was more than dancing and spinning flags. It was where friendships blossomed, life lessons were learned and many performances under the stadium lights ended in tears because I was so happy and thankful for being able to be apart of such an amazing experience.
I often wish I could go back in time and re-live my color guard days. I wish I could go spin again and I wish I could perform under those stadium lights. However, I know that I will carry guard and the lessons it taught me in my heart forever.
