Why I Want To Be A Color Guard

As a child, I was always extremely passionate about dance as a mode of expression for myself. However, my family’s financial situation never permitted me to take proper classes, and for a while I felt that a dream within myself had been crushed. When high school rolled around, I searched for an activity that would satisfy my dance needs and stumbled upon the extracurricular activity Color Guard, which consisted of flag, rifle, and sabre spinning. I grew excited at the idea of joining an activity in my high school, but what really drew me in was the dance aspect. I would finally be able to live out my dream without bound…or so I thought. In my years of participation, I had the pleasure of becoming a more mature and understanding individual although entering with an adolescent mind. Color guard demanded much more of me than I had once presumed. I believed that it entailed coming in once a week, dancing and learning a few techniques

In my years of participation, my Color Guard was an undefeated team at every competition, even moving from the rank of Open Class to World Class in only one year. In my first year, we had the pleasure of winning the silver medal at the Winter Guard International World Championships in Dayton, Ohio. However, these major accomplishments went quite unnoticed by our school and our classmates, many of whom categorized Color Guard as an activity rather than a sport, diminishing some of the pride we had for our accomplishments. Although at times the underappreciation from our classmates was deeply felt, I came to realize that our success was not defined by their approval or understanding, but by our own standards and expectations for ourselves. It was then that I learned to begin to define my success as accomplishing goals for my passions and the betterment of my environment rather than always trying to please