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Note: This is not meant to be considered hate mail. It is merely my perspective, which just so happens to be different from your perspective.
Additional Note: My marching band is small. Ok, I'll admit it, the band's tiny. There are 30 people in it. If you count the flags, you come to the whopping number of 70 or so. We have practices during Tuesday and Thursdays except on the weeks we have a game on Friday in that case we don't practice on Tuesdays and stay after on fridays after school and practice.
The story
This is the necessary part that I'm going to put at the beginning because you should save the best for last (right?). Athletes vs. The Band (or vice versa) In my opinion, this has never really been a big deal til a couple months ago. I was on the Softball team(Big Mistake) as well as in pep band I missed 3 practices because I had band those nights and, well quite frankly I wasn't bout to go and listen to my coach whine and complain about our throwing. So the next day, I got online for our weekly softball chats and they started saying stuff about band and how it isn't sport and how it was quite convenient for me to be online but miss 3 practices, and I was thrown out of the chat. So, I have just decided to stick with the fine arts. Hey, at least in band I'm understood.
And now, onto bigger and better things:
Do uniforms take away from ones individuality? During the first couple games, Ill admit, it is sometimes difficult to tell one person from another. But as the games go on, the white part of our uniforms seems to attract more and more dirt. By the end of the 5th game, it is almost easy to tell each other apart by the marks on the back of ones uniform. Then they are sent to the drycleaners and we have to start all over again for the last five games.
Do all the games just seem repetitive? They only do if you want them to--- rain helps to mix things up. Go out to the practice field for attendance. Practice, go inside, put on uniform, meet outside, march down to stadium with cadence. This last part gets interestingespecially if it has rained lately and you step in a puddle. And if you happen to go to my school, you also have the misfortune of stepping in potholes and slipping on stones. Then you stand around at the end of the field for a while, do pre-game. Go sit in the stands, see how weird your friends can make your hair look with the rubber bands they happened to have in their pocket. Take weird pictures of each other. Write stories. Think up new cheers. Cheer. Dance. Oh and play the fight song for the billionth time I almost forgot that one. Perform for halftime; eat as many cookies as possible during 3rd quarter break. Go back in the stands, play some more. March back to the schoolif our football team wins, the front of the band marches so fast that we in the back have to jog in step in order to keep up but this one doesn't happen often.
I suppose this is almost the same routine for the contests, with a few exceptions. Arrive at competition school, attempt to put on uniform in crowded, confined space, pray you havent forgotten to put anything in your pocket, get instrument off rusty and trusty band trailer, put it together, go through the whole contest. Get back on bus. Take off uniform as fast as possible. And in the end, what exactly do we get out of it? Fun, insanity, and as always, the continuing pursuit of perfection. Now, if only I could manage to stay on step...
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