Personal Narrative: How Marching Band Changed My Life

My Greatest Accomplishment A truly great accomplishment is something that lasts and requires determination and extensive effort. For me, making the Texas Small School All-State Mixed Choir was my biggest accomplishment because it opened me up to new passions, taught me how to work hard, and set me on the path I am on today. In my sophomore year, I joined choir simply to get my fine arts credit out of the way. At the time I did not have any plans for college and was uncertain on what I wanted to do with my life after high school. I honestly hated school and just wanted to get it over with.

I was never interested in academics nor did I ever consider myself ever wanting to teach. In fact, I almost did not graduate high school. However, because I wanted to make my mother proud, and achieve my dream of becoming a firefighter I pushed myself to graduate high school. Saving someone’s life from a burning building, rescuing a teen from a car crash, or bringing a cat home to their owner after getting stuck on a tree. It all seemed great, but was I ready or would I ever be ready to see people in their worst days?

Every second between the end of school and the start of rehearsal was spent conversing with friends, eating snacks, and relaxing because the next two hours would be spent marching back and forth within the same fifteen feet. However, I had taken up a different pre-rehearsal ritual, where I was preparing to march into rehearsal completely refreshed and ready for new instruction. The countless hours in the heat and the taste of dirt might have aggravated the everyday member, but in my head, the time on the field and the scent of freshly cut grass was all I had. I loved it. Unlike the others, I never begged for a water break, not even in the sweltering heat of early August.

A year ago, I signed a contract with Hillsborough marching band but I never knew what I was signing up for. The place I feel at ease is marching band practice. This is because the people there are nice. I even won an award for being the most improved rookie. Although it is tiresome I have to constantly spend around 3 hours practicing marching and playing my music every Mondays and Tuesday during summer and fall, the adrenaline rush made me more focused and on task.

I climbed on the fence to get a better view. I shushed my friends as they tried to get me to go to the concession stand with them; I was too watching the band, I spent the rest of my middle school life waiting for my turn to be in that band, being an eighth-grade

Not getting involved with any after school activities and not enjoying my once in a lifetime school experience. I wish I could have done more stuff in my early years or at least join anaheim achieves.When I joined theatre , the best decision of my life, that's when I started to do all the after school activities and with doing all that leaded me to fall in love with theatre. All my hard work had paid off when I was accepted to advance theatre and that class we were involved with everything. with everything at school . It such a magical thing to work on stuff and rehearsal just to perform in front of a audience seeing them smiling and clapping because they enjoyed the show.

I had tried different sports; I didn't feel connected to the team, but when I started doing band I felt how every person matters and how they play affects the whole group and you don't want to let people down. The friendships I had outside band weren't as strong when we had less in common. When I started doing band at high school level I started to be friends with people I never thought I would be friends with, because I wouldn't have been spending that time with them. We are always there for each other and are like a little family.

I would have to look around and try to fit in as much as possible so my teacher wouldn't think i wasn't fit for the class. Few weeks went on and i start catching up i was going home looking up videos and looking up vocabulary so every time i went back to practice i would improve more and more. When i first started dance it was hard because i wasn't as strong, flexible, or and experienced as the other

Half the time I love playing my alto saxophone, but the other half I just want to throw it at a wall. Why, you ask? This feelings only comes around when there is a new honor band or it’s chair placement time. My failure is never challenging myself enough in band in order to get better. Concert band has been a long rode for me throughout the seven years I’ve been involved in it.

My whole life has been filled with many different experiences and friendships, however, as I reflect on that group of people their are only a handful that I consider truly great friends. My 18 year old cousin, Destany, who I call Diggy happens to be the best in the batch and the person who I recognize as my best friend. Since we were little we always just got each other. Playing pretend and creating “potions”, we were always 100 percent committed to what we were doing and were never bored around each other. However with the playing we did, usually came a huge mess and the adults would not be happy about this.