i'm with the band--part 1

I just recently sold my cornet to my good friend's brother. My twenty-year-old cornet! How did it get to be so old? I remember getting it when I was ten and in the fifth grade. I have such a sentimental attachment to that instrument, and what's really hysterical is that I asked if I could still "visit" it once in a while. Not to play it, but just see it and remember the many years of my life spent in the band. Wow, I'm the very epitome of "band nerd!"

The other day, I happened to find a picture my dad had taken of me marching in the Homecoming parade one year, and that memory tugged at my heartstrings a bit! So many awesome benefits came about for me once I joined the band. It's where I cemented my friendships that had begun in elementary school and junior high. Many of my wild and funny memories came from being in band (some sharing of these may come later!). It served as a haven for those of us who didn't feel like we fit in anywhere else in high school. We belonged there and could feel comfortable being our genuine selves. I was and will always be proud to be a band nerd!

I must say I still have nightmares, however, where I forget my band locker combination, or I'm supposed to be in the halftime show but my instrument is broken or missing. Then there are the nightmares where I'm marching in the halftime show and have my instrument, but I forget where to go next. It feels so real sometimes that it'll take me a minute upon waking to remember I'm not in high school anymore and haven't been for over ten years! It's funny how these kinds of dreams still plague me after all this time. I guess you can take the girl out of the band, but you can't take the band out of the girl.