I have had many classes, many teachers, and many stories about school. Though one thing that I always remember was band. More specifically, marching band. I know it is cliché to say I learned more about life from marching band then I did from most of my classes, but I did. Some of the lessons I learned in marching band are now ingrained into who I am.
1. Differences on being on time.
Being on time to practice meant being there at least five minutes early. This allowed for construction of instrument, getting down to the field, and being ready to play. Now in other instances, being on time meant being there right on the dot. Examples would be, competition days, striping the field, or band meetings. Finding the differences helped shape the way I would arrive to social occasions, and how much anxiety I would have before them. Until I arrive at the predetermined time, that I have set myself, I will be glancing at the clock every five seconds, making sure I won’t miss the time. The only times I will allow myself to arrive late is when I am meeting with friends. Any other occasions and I will arrive at a certain time.
2. Dwelling on failure.
The one quote I remember most from my inspiring band director, Mr. Ronk,
“Do not dwell on missing a set, if you do, you have just missed five more. Then you will be dwelling on those five more, and there goes the show.”
Or something like that. I was never exceptional at exact quotes, but I think my phrasing got the point across. With marching competitions, it is a given that we all will mess up once in a while. We don’t want to, but we will because we are only human. Ronk would tell us that the way to remedy for making mistakes, is to focus harder on the rest of the show. The easiest way to let down the rest of our band is to continue making mistakes because we let the ones before it shake our focus.
In real life, dwelling on our failures and mistakes will lead to pity parties, or that’s how I perceive them. Taking what my band director says to heart, I learn and move on from my mistakes. Dwelling on my shortcomings has turned into more a chore now that I use this principle. Life is just too short to dwell on such shortcomings. Also, when I learn from my mistakes I grow as a person. My writing has been helped by me learning from my mistakes, and improving on them.
3.Trust in your team mates.
Now I have never had a problem with trusting people. Usually if someone betrays me, I just never associate myself with them. However, what I have a hard time trusting people in is pulling their own weight. Group projects had taught me that there will always be slacker, possibly a whole group of them. Band, on the other hand, I needed to trust in my fellow band mates to pull their own weight. Usually they didn’t disappoint. I needed to trust them, because when we are on the competition field I had no control over them. I had to trust in their dedication, and rarely was I disappointed. Sometimes someone would drop the ball, but it was always a fixable ball. Trusting my band mates helped me trust others when in group projects. Having this trust, possibly helped with the success rate I soon saw.
4. Never giving up.
This final one helped me a lot with becoming a writer. Being a writer can be a lot of hit and miss, but I have to never give up. If we don’t place first in a competition, but gave it our all, then we learn from it. We would watch our performance the following morning, allowing for Ronk to critique and show us where we needed to improve. This would inspire me to work harder on places where I messed up. Forever improving my skills as a marcher. Like writing, the rejection emails I would receive would inspire me to edit my story yet again. My story would continually get better and better as I got each rejection email, until I received that one acceptance. That one acceptance, just like first place, elated me. I tried not to get sloppy from the elation, but stick in my back pocket as a reminder of what I can achieve by not giving up.
Rough Draft 