From the moment my high school band director placed that mellophone in my hands in the spring of 2014, I knew I was about to embark on a journey that would impact my life for a long, long time. Looking down at the brass instrument in my hands, I remember smiling. It was pretty dingy-looking. Many dings, dents, and scratches littered the surface, but it still managed to somewhat shine in the dim overhead lighting of the Symphonic Winds room. I loved that mellophone, even though the metal made my entire left hand turn green for two weeks. As I look back on my high school band career, there are so many times where I was having the time of my life, but then there were others where I wanted to quit. There are so many things that I wish had and had not done. So without further ado, here is my advice to high school marching band kids (from a graduate).
Talk to and make as many friends as you physically can. You truly don’t know how many people you’ve influenced and gotten to know until the last game of the year, when you get up on that stage to deliver your senior speech in front of all those faces you’ve spent every day with for the past four years. Yes, there will be some people you just won’t get along with, but you won’t know that until you talk to them. When I looked out into the band crowded in the school auditorium to listen to what the class of 2018 had to say, I finally realized how many people I would actually miss, and it wasn’t just my mellophones.
Don’t let toxic people ruin your experience. I didn’t realize just how toxic someone I considered to be my best friend was until my senior year. She made my senior marching and concert season hell for not just me, but the entire horn section. She managed to tear the section apart and it was up to me to fix it. If you feel like you have a toxic friend, I suggest getting the hell away from them as fast as you physically can.
Appreciate your directors. You may be standing in block, ready to just keel over and die from the heat and how exhausted you are and your directors are spouting on and on about how everything has to be perfect, and you’re thinking “God, I can’t stand this guy. I just want to go home.” Stop. Shut that thought down right now. Yes, directors can be jerks sometimes, but they’re putting their asses on the line for you. Everything they’re doing is for the band. They may pull the whole “I hate every last one of you. Just get these last ten sets done so we can go home.” attitude, but if they’re anything like my director, they’ll do whatever they physically can for their “kids.” You never know when you’re going to have the shittiest day of your life at school and need someone to cry to that you can trust and you know cares about you and your wellbeing.
Don’t wish for graduation to come. Trust me, the thought of graduating sounds amazing, but the second you get that diploma it’s over. The next step is college and it can be scary for an incoming freshman. Remember your awkward freshman year of high school? Yeah, the transition to college is kind of going to be like that. Appreciate the time you have left in band. Before you know it, it’ll be the last game of the season and you’ll be wishing for just one more chance to put on that uniform.
If you plan on going to college, consider doing marching band there. As a freshman at Bowling Green State University, I can say that this is probably my biggest regret of college so far. I decided against joining band because I figured, “Hey, it’s just band. I’m not going to miss it that much.” Yeah, I was very wrong. Every time I see the band around campus, I instantly remember marching in high school and realize how much I miss being a part of such an amazing and talented community. Which is why you’ll see me in the 2019 edition of the Falcon Marching Band. Even if you don’t think you want to march in college, give it some consideration. If college marching band isn’t for you, then maybe DCI is your thing. Experiment. Don’t just quit marching altogether. You won’t know how much you’ll miss something until you see it happening without you. Just like I didn’t realize how much I would miss running around a football field wearing overly-high-waisted pants with suspenders, a bucket helmet, and a straight jacket.
All in all, high school marching band has taught more way more than just how to play the mellophone and the perfect technique for roll stepping. It taught me how to be a leader, how to make quality friendships that I will never lose, and to never forget where I came from. I can’t wait to begin my journey as a member of the Falcon Marching Band in the fall of 2019. And hey, who knows, maybe in the spring of 2022 there will be a part two to this, Advice to College Marching Band Kids.
“I didn’t start publishing Pennsylvania’s Orange Street News so that people would think I’m cute. I want to get the truth to people, even if it makes grownups mad,” says 9-year-old Hilde Kate Lysiak, publisher of and reporter for the Orange Street News.
After reporting on a suspected homicide in Selinsgrove, Pa., Hilde was harassed by “disgusted” adults commenting on her site, saying her time would be better spent at tea parties and playing with dolls.
I just looked this up and it turned out it was about a production of “cat on a hot tin roof”, a play which famously features a closeted gay lead character. a member of the audience was catcalling female actresses and shouting homophobic abuse when actor john lacy, who played the character big daddy, paused his performance and called him out. the heckler replied “what are you going to do about it?” to which lacy responded by leaping down into the audience and knocking him to the ground.
