For those who don’t me I have participated in the marching band for a total of 8 seasons,four years in high school and four years in college. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed every moment of every season (everything in life always has its ups and downs). However, I noticed that as time went on I started to lose interest, and I’d like to reflect on that.
High school marching band was a fun time! At my school, we did competitions and those were the best part. Coming back to the band building at 2am, yelling the show music on the band bus, and the overall high of performing your show to the best of your abilities to a live crowd and hoping that you, as one band, would pull out a state championship victory. I’ll be honest: I hated my first year of marching band. The show was awful and my section leaders were far from friendly but when it was the off season, I missed it terribly.
As much as I hated not getting drum major during my senior year, I still very much enjoyed performing the show and co-running the clarinet section and being with my friends. Once I got to college, things changed a little bit. I didn’t handle change very well, so being in a new environment with new people and a new way of doing things was difficult for me to transition to. I noticed that my love for one of my favorite activities started to decline as I neared my final season of marching band.
For three years while in college, I tried to become a section leader or drum major and didn’t end up with either position. It was frustrating. I had no feedback to go off of so I had no idea what I was doing wrong, so it eventually tainted my overall experience. On top of that, I really missed doing competitive and complex shows with interesting concepts and music. Sure, playing songs from Guardians of the Galaxy was cool, but I loved performing shows with a story and competing with it. In the marching band world, college bands don’t compete like how high school bands do. The most we do is perform at the Collegiate Marching Band festival, but even then it didn’t give me a performance high.
I don’t think I’ll miss marching for a college band. I was asked by a friend if I would do it as a graduate student if I had the time, and I said no. Not because I wouldn’t have time, but because it didn’t make me happy anymore. I’ll gladly support anyone in marching band because I understand how demanding it can be, but that chapter of my life is finished.