End of Marching Season

by Orianna Acosta
After a long day at school, you hop on the bus and throw yourself into the seat, overwhelmed with exhaustion. While you’re waiting for your friends to arrive, you entertain yourself by gazing out the window, and then you spot them– the band kids.

You see them playing their drums, tuning their clarinets, and adjusting their trombones, the sun reflecting off the tubas. “Dang.” you think to yourself.

The band students are always seen practicing every Tuesday and Thursday, and also performing at the football games every Friday. But, what is in between those two events? What is it like to be a band kid?

“It’s extremely tiring” shares an anonymous source. “However, it’s a hundred percent worth it.” This drum player had a fair amount of things to say about band, many which coincided with his fellow bandmates. “Rewarding, rewarding is the word. You work really hard, but at the end of the day, the results make it worth it”. We all know band is a lot of work, you can tell by the sweat coming off the band kids every time they practice and the hours they put into their craft.

Good work ethics are completely necessary for being a band kid. This needs to come hand in hand with all of the principles of teamwork. A fellow trombone player says, “it’s all about cooperating with others, that is the key to a great performance”. By collaborating with others to put on a great show, you are bound to make many friendships that are guaranteed to last. “We are bonded by the inside jokes, the music, the adrenaline, and also the sweat,” laughed the flute player. Extremely accurate coordination is required to succeed, and that can not be done without communication. It’s a good thing they’re all friends, otherwise there would be a lot of broken notes, along with instruments.

The work ethics don’t only apply to the marching itself, but rather to everything else that the band kids need to do. As a band kid, you need to learn how to manage your time correctly in order to create a great performance, while also getting eight hours of sleep and maintaining school.

“At the end of the day, you are doing something you love” explained the drum player. “I used to hate being in band, but now I can’t imagine not being in it,” shared the clarinet player. Working towards something other people will love will always be rewarding. However, there is something different about working towards something YOU love with your friends and others. At the end of the day, it’s all about “enjoying what you’re doing and keeping your toes up when you walk.”