To shed some light on myself, I thoroughly love to entertain
others. It brings me such joy to see the joy in others and most of the time
that is the payment I receive. One medium of entertainment I like to express is
music or more specifically marching band. I have been in marching drumline for
roughly eight years now and each year has brought a new approach to me as a
musician. For my first three years of high school I marched bass drum and
marched quad drums my senior year. Since my high school lacked cymbal line I decided
to join that when I started marching here at Mansfield. When I marched quads in
high school I felt confident that I had understood them and wondered whether or
not I should try out for them at MU. Unfortunately, over the next three years
listening to the quads I was almost sure I wasn’t fit to play them at a
collegiate level. To those unaware of the challenge marching drum have, believe
me it is very difficult. There are many stick variations that can be very hard
to comprehend if you cannot think in a rhythmic mindset. So I felt I would
never reach higher than a high school level that is until this year.
This year during the
tryouts I managed to be placed as a quad player for MU. I was both excited but
also afraid that I would not be able to do it. Up until this semester I hadn’t
played quads for three years and those first couple practices showed. Many times
I felt I wasn’t going to be able to continue but something strange happened. One
day I just clicked and even though I can’t hit every note, how I play now and
how I played at beginning of the semester was surprisingly different. I can
play at a collegiate level now and I feel so great about it. It gave me a sense
of inspiration and drive to learn other things as well. This set in stone a
philosophy that I have been living by for some time now: whatever you do, there
will always be someone better than you at it, but that ok because eventually
you will reach that level and quite possibly surpass them as long as you don’t
give up along the way. If you feel like seeing the band perform it would definitely
be worth your while and I would love to entertain for you like all the other
members in the band.
It really is such a great feeling when something finally "clicks". I bet you even felt more accomplished and excited when you "got it" and felt like you were playing at a high level, than when you got accepted in tryouts. There always is someone worse than us, and someone better than us, so there's nothing to do but be satisfied and improve at our own rate. That should always be enough.
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