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Band Those horrible, hot days of summer band. Rehearsing drill until your legs burn. Doing the show until you are positively
sick of the band director saying "let's do it just one more time." Loading and unloading instruments, carrying flags and props
on and off the field with timing of a military offensive, day after day after day. Ice to relieve bruises on wrists, foreheads,
and swollen lips. Doing pushups. Standing at attention for five more minutes than you can bear. Sunburn. Wanting to sell your
soul for 5 more minutes of sleep. Flags in the face, rifles in the ribs. Wanting to give it all up and join the chess club.
Hearing the show music in your sleep. Sectionals. Heartburn. Heartbreak. Drumming on everything in sight. Tossing anything
you can pick up. Thinking marching band was a stupid idea to get out of P.E. Running laps because someone else was late AGAIN.
Realizing color guard looked a lot easier than it is. Doing more pushups. Wondering what happened to your life. Eating dinner
in the car while changing clothes and doing homework. Lost shoes and lost mouthpieces. Blood blisters on your palms. Learning
the fine art of sleeping on a bus. Tears and teasing. Learning you have 199 new brothers and sisters who stick by you
through thick and thin. Knowing you have 24 new parents who will cheer for you, no matter what. Laughing with others and learning
more about yourself than you knew. Doing more pushups. Thinking the show will never work. And then, finally, it comes all
together and you have achieved perfection, drumming your hands off and playing your brains out and tossing higher than the
sky. A slice of time in a stadium when everyone cheers and your mom cries and pictures get taken and once, just once, you
have the world in your hands. And the band marches out of the stadium and down the street, always together whether it's success
or not, and you know by the feeling in your heart it doesn't get any better than this. And you know if your director asked
you to turn around and "do it just one more time a little better", you would.
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