Guarding our Watch

It's finally over.

After four years of struggle, heartbreak, dedication, and lots of spit, my final marching band competition was yesterday.

Now, all this year there has been some extra pressure on the Seniors; it was now "our watch", our responsibility to make sure the band was as good as possible by setting an example for the underclassmen. The problem has been obvious ever since we began marching in July: Our band is very immature. The majority of the band (about 3/4 of it) is made up of freshmen and sophmores, meaning that the level of difficulty in the music and drill had to be lowered to fit the ability of the band. But by doing this, we got a bland drill, one that didn't have any pizzazz or excitement, while we played Boys of the Old Brigade march, with one of the hardest Trios we've ever attempted (the funny thing about that was that 4 other bands played the same march in their drills but left out the trio because it is very difficult....just imagine how much work was put into that last little section of music!).

All we've heard is complaints, worries, and other negative comments about how we arent as good as we should be. But after three months of work, contest came, and in eight short minutes, we did everything we could to wow the judges.

Let me tell you, It definately paid off! Even though we had so much to struggle with this year, our band made a first division (the highest you can make) at contest! Everyone was estatic, but none were as happy as the Seniors. We finally proved that we could hold on to our first division winning streak, that we are just as dedicated as those before us, and that in the end we had it in us all along.

So, after we got home last night there were several parties (and pranks) held for the band. I made the rounds, traveling to several of them, only to find myself overjoyed and deeply saddened by the end of my high school marching career. No more sweat and late night practices, sure, but I'm losing so much. No more races to the stadium, no more celebrations and parties, no more pranks on our youngest band directors house because we wiped the competition clean....

All that's left to say is "It's all over"...
And man, I can't wait for the party we are gonna have on Monday morning!
Deneece
aka Lostie108