I'll actually put up a Friday blog on Friday. One of these days...
Last home football game at SK. I can now say this without fear of jinxing ourselves, but we went the entire season without rain during a home game (I say home games because I wen to the game last week, which was away, and it was poring rain). It was almost the opposite last year. I can't remember how many times we had to drag our the plastic rain ponchos (ugh!) Sadly, it rained enough during the day that the field was too squishy-squashy to march on without ruining our band uniforms. Gotta keep those uniforms clean...
Last home game also meant it was Senior Night, where all the seniors (and their parents) from cheer, football, and band are recognized. For some lucky people, it was a stark reminder of how supportive our parents have been of us over the past seventeen, eighteen years. For others, however, it was a stark reminder of how supportive they weren't. I was fortunate enough to find myself in the former category, and I walked across the track in front of the home team supporters while my name was called with my mom and my dad by my side. There were a few people whose parents didn't care enough to show up. Fortunately, we had some "surplus" band parents of underclassmen who were more than glad to act as surrogate parents for those parent-less students. There was one kid who was escorted by two students, two of his friends, who were in the student section. That's the thing I love about this band (and, frankly, our senior class)--there is the incredible, irreplaceable sense of family that defines us as a group.
In high school, I've figured out, in order to survive, you really need to find your own niche. Screw all the people who say avoid joining the dreaded "cliques" of high school. Sometimes they aren't that big of a deal. What is a big deal are the stereotypes given to those cliques and, sadly, very few students do anything to change that. People need something to latch onto in high school, whether it be a group of people who have the same taste in music as you, or a sports team or the theater or band. High school is a big place, and people need a commonality between their peers (not all, but some) in order to feel important, like they belong. Nothing's worse than feeling like you don't belong.
Of course, sometimes we hang out with the wrong types of people. We seek out the wrong commonalities. Partying.. Drugs. Alcohol. You try to hang out with the kids from the basketball teams, even though you're heavily into technology. It's okay if you figure out that you're hanging out with the "wrong" group of people, just as long as you remain true to what you believe in and don't sacrifice yourself.
Wow. That was cheesy. But it's true. Being a band kid, I already had a niche carved out for me when I went to high school. Or I thought I did. The first day of camp (which is in August) my sophomore year, I was told that the band was like a family, that no matter how many times we may have disagreements, we always look out for each other. I didn't believe it. So I was ignorant of it. Until life kicked me in the butt. Long story short, right around Halloween of my sophomore year, right up until February, being at home around my family wasn't the easiest thing n the world (maybe I'll go into why, but I have to save that story for a later time). But what kept me going was the environment I entered the second I walked into the band room. Funny thing is, there's always at least one other person in the band room at all times. (We pretty much live there. Last year, we had two sleeping bags and a tent in there at one point.) And people can tell when you're having a bad day. Sometimes they'll ask why, but most times they'll just come up to you and give you a hug. It may not solve everything, but at least it makes everything alright for a little bit. It lets you know that at least one person cares. And sometimes that's all you need.
Ever since, I've tried to uphold that sense of family. Most people do. We all cry at the end of the year when the seniors have to leave because we've grown so tight as a group over the past year, and it's always weird at the beginning of every year because the seniors from the previous year are missing, and there are all these new people, messing with the dynamic that had been built the year before. But that's normal. But no matter who is in this band, we are family, and we look out for one another. Two weeks ago, at homecoming, I caught word of how one of our sophomores was ditched by her date (who also stole her money). I and the group of people I was with (all band kids) stayed with her and tried to track down the guy. We told the dean and invited the girl to come hang out with us for the rest of the dance. She said she had a better time with us than with her "date". Mission accomplished.
I love these people (you'll hear me say this a lot this year, but it just shows you guys how much I love them) and I would do anything for any of them, and I know that they would do the same for me.
'Cause we're not just a bunch of band kids. We're family.
No comments:
Post a Comment