Dedicated with everything I have to my band director, Jim Whitenburg
This was either the year from hell, or the time of my life. I don't know you decide.
It started with band camp. It always does. I am a freshman. I play tenor sax. My field commander is van. He used to think he was gay. Now he's strait. Are you allowed to bounce back and forth like that? It doesn't bother me though. I'm not a homophobe. He is a sophomore. He put me through hell. My friend Pam plays bass clarinet. Apparently tenors and bass's are put in the same category? While were at it let's just put all the step up instruments together. I kind of lack the ability to keep time and march in step. I had so many push-ups. This summer I spent more time with my friends than ever before. We got really close going to practice every day. My best friend's boyfriend and I got so close that we kissed. Great now I'm a whore. You know what though, it kind of blew over. Everyone's forgotten and I've totally repented. Everyone makes mistakes. We went to our first contest. We left at ten in the morning and stayed out until midnight. We didn't win anything. Nope we didn't even place. I bought a cool sax shirt though. Then we had our first parade. The first mile was really fun. Everyone loved us in my small town. We were the main event. Soon after this we had our first football game. It was amazing. In the bleachers we had like one fourth of the space. Someone through a water bottle in the tuba bell. He took it apart and a liter of spit fell out. Now before every game we say who through that! Phantom of the opera came to town and the band bought tickets. It was one of the coolest things I ever saw. The band boosters decided to raise money we would work the Vanderbilt concession stands. Word of advice; don't ever buy anything that isn't prepackaged. You have no idea what they do to that food. It is really digusting. It was a major opportunity for me though. We got to do anything we wanted with the leftovers. Hee hee. The days got colder and the bandboosters were just getting started. They got together and decided we should sell doughnuts at six in the morning on the street. We made up a dance called the doughnut dance to sale these overpriced delicacies. You must understand it was very early and very cold. We had to do something. Especially cause this was to buy new color guard equipment and im in horn line. Our next contest rolled around. It rained the entire day. Not just sprinkles it rained cats and dogs. I lost my shoe in the mud. People fell. Our tuba player fell. He nicked a tooth. Then post contest I had to sit in the rain for roughly four hours with nothing but a tank top, bibbers and my dinkles {marching shoes}. We kicked ass though. We brought home first in our division. Our theme was shades of Latin America. We started planning our band trip for spring break we were going to go to Fiesta, Texas. Our band director got kidney stones. The trip was off. I have never been on a trip before our middle school trip was canceled do to our band director having a heart attack. Very disappointing. After many more foot ball games, Christmas parade and after school rehearsals that lasted till 8 we finally got to go to the state championships. Van told me he Mr. Whitenburg didn't want me to go cause I wasn't good enough. Van is a liar. I cried so hard before he said he was kidding. As I said before I live in a very small town, hence a very small school. We had only been to state once before. We didn't make finals. So I went. This year we came, we saw, we conquered. My band placed third in state. Can you imagine? Out of all the bands in TN. Mine is third. Well marching season is over now. What do I do? I'm lost without band being the dictator of my life. Concert season has started. I've had so much fun. But, this has also been the hardest thing I've ever done.
This was either the year from hell, or the time of my life. I don't know you decide.
It started with band camp. It always does. I am a freshman. I play tenor sax. My field commander is van. He used to think he was gay. Now he's strait. Are you allowed to bounce back and forth like that? It doesn't bother me though. I'm not a homophobe. He is a sophomore. He put me through hell. My friend Pam plays bass clarinet. Apparently tenors and bass's are put in the same category? While were at it let's just put all the step up instruments together. I kind of lack the ability to keep time and march in step. I had so many push-ups. This summer I spent more time with my friends than ever before. We got really close going to practice every day. My best friend's boyfriend and I got so close that we kissed. Great now I'm a whore. You know what though, it kind of blew over. Everyone's forgotten and I've totally repented. Everyone makes mistakes. We went to our first contest. We left at ten in the morning and stayed out until midnight. We didn't win anything. Nope we didn't even place. I bought a cool sax shirt though. Then we had our first parade. The first mile was really fun. Everyone loved us in my small town. We were the main event. Soon after this we had our first football game. It was amazing. In the bleachers we had like one fourth of the space. Someone through a water bottle in the tuba bell. He took it apart and a liter of spit fell out. Now before every game we say who through that! Phantom of the opera came to town and the band bought tickets. It was one of the coolest things I ever saw. The band boosters decided to raise money we would work the Vanderbilt concession stands. Word of advice; don't ever buy anything that isn't prepackaged. You have no idea what they do to that food. It is really digusting. It was a major opportunity for me though. We got to do anything we wanted with the leftovers. Hee hee. The days got colder and the bandboosters were just getting started. They got together and decided we should sell doughnuts at six in the morning on the street. We made up a dance called the doughnut dance to sale these overpriced delicacies. You must understand it was very early and very cold. We had to do something. Especially cause this was to buy new color guard equipment and im in horn line. Our next contest rolled around. It rained the entire day. Not just sprinkles it rained cats and dogs. I lost my shoe in the mud. People fell. Our tuba player fell. He nicked a tooth. Then post contest I had to sit in the rain for roughly four hours with nothing but a tank top, bibbers and my dinkles {marching shoes}. We kicked ass though. We brought home first in our division. Our theme was shades of Latin America. We started planning our band trip for spring break we were going to go to Fiesta, Texas. Our band director got kidney stones. The trip was off. I have never been on a trip before our middle school trip was canceled do to our band director having a heart attack. Very disappointing. After many more foot ball games, Christmas parade and after school rehearsals that lasted till 8 we finally got to go to the state championships. Van told me he Mr. Whitenburg didn't want me to go cause I wasn't good enough. Van is a liar. I cried so hard before he said he was kidding. As I said before I live in a very small town, hence a very small school. We had only been to state once before. We didn't make finals. So I went. This year we came, we saw, we conquered. My band placed third in state. Can you imagine? Out of all the bands in TN. Mine is third. Well marching season is over now. What do I do? I'm lost without band being the dictator of my life. Concert season has started. I've had so much fun. But, this has also been the hardest thing I've ever done.