Marching Band
Those horrid, hot days of band camp. Rehearsing drill until your legs burn. Tossing 4's until your arms ache. Doing the show until you are sick of hearing McCullough say, "Take it back!" Loading and unloading instruments, carrying flags on an off the field day after day after day. Ice to relieve bruises on wrists, foreheads, and ankles. Swollen lips. Black eyes. Doing push-ups. Doing jumping jacks. Standing at attention for five more minutes than you can bear. Sunburn. Wanting to sell yourself for five more minute of sleep. Flags in the face, rifles in the ribs, and wanting to give it all up and join the chess club. Hearing the show music in your sleep. Sectionals. Heartburn and heartbreak. Drumming on everything in sight. Tossing anything you pick up. Thinking marching band was a stupid way to get out of PE. Running laps because someone else was late, again. Running laps just because the drum major wants you to. Realizing marching looked a lot easier that it is. Doing more pushups. Doing more jumping jacks because someone else messed them up, AGAIN! Wondering what happened to your life. Eating dinner in a car while changing and doing your homework. Lost shoes, lost gloves, and lost mouth pieces. Blood blisters on your palms. Long underwear under your uniform. Icy wind in your face. Learning the fine art of sleeping on a bus. Tears and teasing. Learning that you have 200 new brothers and sisters who stick by you through thick and thin. Knowing you have 400 new parents who will cheer for you, no matter what. Laughing with others. Learning more about yourself than you even thought possible. Doing more pushups. Thinking the show will never work. But finally, it comes together and you have achieved perfection. Drumming your hands off. Playing your brains out. Tossing higher than the sky. A slice of time in a stadium when everyone cheers and your mom cries and pictures get taken, and once, just once, you have the world in your hands. And as the band marches out of the stadium and down the street, always together whether it's success or not, and you know by the feeling in your heart that it doesn't get any better than this. And you know that if McCullough asked you to turn around and "Do it one more time, a little better," you would because you love it!