In honor of the impending marching band season (I suppose there's some football, too), I thought to would be an appropriate time to talk about why marching band is so awesome. I know that most of you were in high school and/or college band (because the primary mode for distributing my blog is through Facebook, and most of my Facebook friends (and, y'know, in-person friends) are from band... but more on that later), so consider this an opportunity to reminisce. For those of you outliers who weren't, consider this a chance to find out what you missed!
(For those of you who did drum corps, I didn't, so you're just going to have to deal with it if something I say doesn't match up with your experience.)
Free admission to football games!
This one is pretty self-explanatory. The seats are usually pretty decent, too, and most band folks are at least fairly familiar with football. (Not everyone, though, which does baffle me. How can you go to years worth of games and not at least have a basic understanding of what's going on on the field?) But even if the seats weren't decent, it's still pretty awesome getting into the games.
Of course, it's not REALLY free, in that you're just actually paying for admission with your time, effort, and services. Even just assuming minimum wage for the 15 or so hours every week that you spend in rehearsal and performing means your admission is worth well upwards of $100/game. But you do get academic credit (some places) and awesome trips (see below), so let's just go, "Free admission!" and call it good.
Learning some responsibility
I'm sure most bands have a saying along the lines of, "If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, you're left behind." Marching band is a great way to learn some time management skills. (I'll tell you in a later post about my issues with alarm clocks in college.) My first year in HMB, we actually left someone in Eugene after the game because he was late getting back to the buses. A worser fate, I cannot imagine.
You also get to be in charge of your own stuff. If you forget something, you get to deal with it. If it's small stuff like spats or gloves, the equipment manager can probably fix you up. But people have been known to forget parts of their uniforms, or even their instruments. (How you forget your instrument in band is beyond me, but... oh, wait, that was me, once. Thankfully it was just back in the instrument storage room, but still. Whoops.)
Band trips!
I'm pretty sure it's impossible to overstate the awesomeness of band trips. Even in high school, band trips are awesome. You often get out of classes, you get to stay in hotels with your friends, and the competitions are pretty fun, too.
College band trips are even better. Away game trips, flights, charter buses rather than school buses, no curfew, bowl trips... well, most bowl trips. I'll tell you the story of the 2002 Sun Bowl trip someday (for those of you who didn't get the dubious pleasure of living through it, too). And per diem! Who doesn't like getting money to buy their meals?
And the romance, of course. Band trips are legendary for the copious (and sometimes bizarre/awkward/surprising) amount of... romantic connections between band members. I can't think of a single band trip that I was on that didn't involve the formation (however temporary) of at least one couple. Well, maybe the basketball pepband trip to LA that was less than 24 hours, but that's about it.
Exercise
Hours of marching practice each week will definitely burn plenty of calories. And who can forget the first few days of fall camp, where your muscles have to relearn how to march (especially if you're in a high-stepping band). As someone who was not good at self-motivating for exercise in college, fall was definitely my fittest time of year.
It's a safe place
I'm sure this will be a huge shock, but there's some drinking that goes on in college. (High school, too, but that wasn't really my scene, so I can't speak from experience there.) Fortunately, band kids are generally a good sort, which makes band parties a pretty safe environment for, shall we say, indulgence. Especially for those who are just getting started in that sort of thing and don't know their limits just yet. I also don't believe you have worry about spiked drinks or anything like that. Even the band folks who come off as complete jerks most of the time can be counted on to help you out if you get yourself in trouble in this sort of a situation.
It makes your school a bit smaller
For those who go to a large college, the sheer number of students, most of whom you don't know (unlike high school, where you probably knew a significant number of classmates from middle or even elementary school), can be overwhelming. Fortunately, marching band gives you a nigh-instantaneous group of people you will at least recognize, and chances are that you'll see some of them every time you're walking around campus, and some may even be in your classes (especially the bigger ones). That can be hugely reassuring, and makes your new school a little more welcoming.
It's a huge rush
I literally don't have the words to express what it's like the first time you march out in front of 70,000+ fans for a show (or, for those poor sad schools to the south and east with smaller stadiums, fewer fans than that). Being out on the field, with the stadium and all the fans towering around you... It's just incredible.
There's still some of that in high school, especially at the competitions, but college is another level entirely.
Friends forever! (Pinky swear!) Or even more.
Given everything you go through together, how much time you spend together, the fact that you've all seen each other in various states of undress as you change on buses, it's no surprise that most of your friends while in band are going to be other band kids. It generally seems to stay that way after band, though. As I mentioned above, most of my friends are from band, and my closest friends are all people I know from band, or married to people I know from band.
Speaking of marriage, there's also a great chance that you're going to marry someone from marching band. In that close group of friends, everyone who's married married someone else from band, except for one. (But you're still awesome, Linnet!) That's even broadly true in my larger circle of friends. I think the majority of people I know from HMB who are married married someone else from HMB, and I suspect that's probably the case for other bands, too.
TL;DR: Because reasons.
Alrighty, fellow band kids, your turn. Anything you want to add or emphasize? I wouldn't blame you; I feel like I'm barely doing this justice here.
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