The other day, I had a friend of mine ask me what it was about marching band that I loved so much. .Here is what I told him…
It's never going home, but always feeling like you are home
It's having 100 people that would do anything for you
It's dinner in the hallways
It's using an ugly pimp coat as a pillow
It's knowing that you can tell them anything
It's nicknames
It's going out after a game
It's yelling at the announcer when he says the name of a football player wrong
It's coming up with ways you can torture the new freshmen
It's spending your study hall in the band room
It's knowing that you can have it out with someone in your section, and 5 min later you act like nothing happened
It's laughing when someone asks to see your cocoanuts
It's bus rides
It's drama
It's the screaming fans
It's the band parents
It's the parties
It's spending new years in Florida
It's talking about band stories so much that your non band friends know them
It's convincing all your friends to join band or guard
It's living in the band hall
It's watching someone cry when they have to go into the band hall
It's crying for the seniors
It's pep rallies
It's confusing non band people with music terms
It's finding random music in your notebook
It's singing
It's wining when your band director calls for sectionals
It's begging for sectionals
It's slipping on wet Astroturf
It's not missing a football game
It's inside jokes that other people take wrong
It's discounted food
It's making fun of the cheerleaders
It's using a tuba bell as a hat
It's laughing so hard you fall out of your chair
It's making you band director laugh so hard he has to leave the room
It's knowing where our homeroom is
It's getting to pick your locker
It's bragging that you saw . . . in his boxers
It's whining about the heat during band camp
It's then wishing that you had that heat during some of the later games
It's playing 'tag'
It's traditions
It's playing in the stands
It's counting down the days till band camp
It's always looking at your watch until school is over
It's looking at your watch waiting to go inside
It's throwing water at the people in your section
It's playing in the sprinklers
It's the magic box
It's treating the freshmen to lunch before the first game
It's parties
It's getting to know your best friends
It's getting mad when people say "This one time at band camp. . "
It's believing that professional football teams should have marching bands
It's chucking water bottles
It's getting to make fun of your band director
It's urging your younger sister to pick up an instrument
It's thinking of you know you're a band geek when lists instead of doing something worth while
It's dreading the last football game
It's seeing football players cry
It's that feeling you get when you walk out onto the field.
It's seeing the confused look on a freshmen/rookies face as they look at a drill chart for the first time, and remembering when you did that
It's having no privacy
It's doing cheers
It's looking like everyone else
It's turning a plunger mute into a weapon
It's using a mute as a megaphone
It's twitching when you here Dr. Beat
It's running around
It's knocking people over so you aren't late getting back to the stands
It's trying to spin your horn on your fingers
It's memories
It's making up words to the cheerleaders cheers(they aren't always good. . )
It's shuttering when you here the song that you played in your last parade
It's randomly humming songs in class
It's you and your friends humming your parts to your music in the hall
It's walking down the hall in step with your friends
Most of all it's knowing that you have a group that you will always remember, and you consider your family
After that he never asked me again. I am not sure if it is that he didn't want to here all of my reasons again, or if he finally understood. But either way. . .the next year he joined marching band.
