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.