August of 2021 – on the bus up to Interlochen. Going up to a week-long camp, where I knew nobody there and had never tried marching band before, was definitely a bit nerve-wracking. I wasn’t very socially confident, I was actually quite the opposite.
The 2021 Skyline Marching Band ended up being one of the most welcoming groups I have ever met. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, genuinely cared about me. The band was a group of some of the funniest, friendliest people I had ever met, and we all shared a similar passion. Long story short, I made some of my best friends at that band camp, and more during the marching band season. Man, I had a blast. Let me tell you, going out onto the field for my first pregame, or to play my first ever halftime performance (with a stacked setlist – Build Me Up, Don’t Stop Believin’, Take On Me, and Ain’t No Mountain), was one of the most exciting experiences of my life.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The marching season ends, the trimester ends, the year ends, and the seniors, some of my friends, graduate. They left the junior class with many traditions, and me with many many good memories.
Come sophomore year, same story. Made more close friends, mostly seniors. Same story, different music. Once again, marching season ends, and more of my friends graduate.
The following year, as a junior, was my first year as section leader for the trumpets, under the two other senior section leaders that year. However, this year, the senior class was smaller, and there was generally less energy throughout the band. Freshman and sophomore years, the band was electric, everybody was excited to get to the next game day. So much so that it became a running joke in the band where “every day is game day!”
That hype was lacking this year, that excitement, and honestly, that same welcoming, buzzing environment that had so kindly brought me into the band back in 2021. I wasn’t really sure what to do about this, though, as I wasn’t super comfortable in my section leader position yet. I had never really had a leadership position before, so I was still getting used to it.
I had finally made it – senior year marching band. I’m the only senior section leader for the trumpets this year, with the help of one junior section leader who I consider a friend of mine. But this year, I really had to reflect on my previous experiences in the marching band.
Everyone deserved that same environment I had experienced my freshman year. I missed that energy, that friendliness, and really thought about how to bring that back.
I realized that those seniors, my freshman year, were the drivers of that energy. The seniors were the ones who I looked up to, they brought the energy, the passion, into the band.
They were also very outgoing, confident. They were not only the hype squad, but they were also the social drivers. When the seniors were outgoing, so was everybody else. This is because everybody in the band looked up to them. Of course!
So, for my senior year of marching band, I had to think back to those seniors my freshman year. Once my section leader, always my section leader. I was constantly thinking to myself “what would Max do?” or “what would Nate do?”
These seniors, though it took me four years to realize this, were the people I aspired to be. I want to be friendly, funny, outgoing, but also somebody that anybody can approach for help. A mentor, but a friend. I learned truly how much of an impact those seniors my freshman year had made on me.
Well, now it was my turn. I wanted our members to have that 2021 marching band experience that I had, and I had no idea how to do that.
Through the help of my fellow section leader, who understood the task, we tried our best to bring that positive energy into the band. We consulted the help of an ex-Skyline section leader, who told us that she actually had experienced the same problem. Her advice was “fake it ‘til you make it.” She was a senior my sophomore year, and I thought that the marching band still had that same energy my sophomore year, which just told me that her advice was legit.
So we tried our best to get the hype up, the excitement. Tried to make a more exciting, fun environment for our section. Did we reach 2021 levels? No. But that’s okay. The bar is high, and I think that we still made a fun, unique experience for those in our section.
I hope that I left somebody, at least somebody in the band, with that same impact those seniors had on me.
The Skyline Marching Band has many traditions. The trumpet section has many traditions. Some traditions involve rubber chickens, some involve honoring a long-since-passed frog. Those traditions live on.
I hope, though, that I have continued the most important tradition in the band. Not teaching kids new halftime drill, or how to play a part of a song. No, I hope that I was for somebody else what those seniors were for me, a reason to love the band and a reason to stay.
Skyline Learning Center 