Lizy

In high school, I played the alto saxophone, and I was a part of the marching band program. I was convinced to join because the senior members were very welcoming and amicable, and it seemed like a good place to make friends, play music, and have fun. At first, I didn’t have any close friends, but over the four years I would make everlasting friendships and memories.

At times it was hard to balance my academic schedule with marching band—especially when I started taking more challenging classes. While it wasn’t rigorous in a physical way, it still required a lot of time and effort to participate and put on a good show. For two weeks in the summer, we would spend about twelve hours at “band camp” often standing under the hot sun on a practice field. After school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4-7, we had band practice outside, and on Fridays we would also have game nights. Plus, on Saturdays we often had all-day competition events. However, all that work was worth it when during my senior year, for the first time, our band participated in Bands of America (BOA), a national competition in which bands from all over America come together to perform and compete. We played at the Lucas Oil Stadium, and we managed to qualify for semi-finals—which was an incredible shock to our entire program.

Marching band was more than just walking on a field and making noise; it was cracking jokes left and right, being goofy with your friends, and working collectively towards something you believed to be worthy of your attention. I wasn’t the best player or performer, and our band wasn’t the best either, but marching band gave me the opportunity to befriend those who I wouldn’t have had the chance to talk to under different circumstances. My friends in marching band made me feel like I was home.