A lot of you guys from last year’s SEMS Advanced Band know me. That’s because I was in last year’s Advanced Band. I can definitely say that I had a bunch of fun playing with everybody last year. It was a blast.

But what wasn’t so fun was deciding if I wanted to join High School Marching Band. I’ve read letters from other people saying how cool band was, but I still wasn’t so sure. I ultimately decided to join, but I honestly wasn’t too psyched on my decision.

I had a whole list of reasons why I shouldn’t join Marching Band which include “I’m going to be too busy for it” and “Not a lot of my friends are joining”. My favorite was “I’m going to be a band geek”. I was really afraid that I wouldn’t enjoy Marching Band as much as I enjoyed Band in middle school. Sure enough when I joined, all of these problems vanished.

I wasn’t too busy to fit Marching Band practices into my schedule. If anything, Marching Band was the reason why I got all of my homework done earlier in the day. And besides, there’s only two days of Marching Band every week, and only one of them happens at night. I had plenty of time even with Marching Band.

A bunch of my friends did join Marching Band, but I’ve also made a bunch of new friends that were already in Marching Band. On my first day, I got a bunch of hugs from some people that I knew and they introduced me to their other friends who were also in band. I didn’t believe it when I heard it, but Marching Band is truly a great place to meet people who can make your high school experience easier. If you’re worried that you’ll be alone in Marching Band, don’t be. It never happens.

I’ll admit, it’s not exactly the coolest thing in the world, but you will never get bullied or harassed because you are in Marching Band. And besides, we’re on a winning streak. We’ve got three first place trophies to prove it. If a football player is ever giving you a hard time about being in marching band, give him a hard time about losing that game 7-41.

But my favorite part about marching band has to be actually playing in marching band. When you get the steps right and the notes aligned with those steps, it just feels so freaking awesome. The first time I played in front of a crowd, my adrenaline was pumping. People were actually cheering while we played. I distinctly remember when we played a part of the music called the “Impact”, the most powerful section of the music. Man, the crowd went nuts! It amazed me how the crowd got pumped up because of our playing.

I thought I was the only person that felt like this, but apparently all of the other marchers feel the same, especially the freshman. Even the person I had to force to join Marching Band feels the same. My advice to you is this, just try it. Go sign up for Marching Band. It may seem dorky, but it’s an awesome experience. Trust me, you may seem reluctant now, but once you join, you’ll be so glad that you did.

Sincerely,

Thai A.K.A “Whiz Kid” ‘12

Trumpet

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