Tonight ended the most grueling, fight for every set band camp I've ever been to. Yet, it was also the most incredible experience and possibly the best band camp i've ever been to.
I walked in on rookies day and thought to myself " Being a leader means doing the uncomfortable thing" I was determined to take this to heart with the rookies. The very first day, as we introduced ourselves, played games, and made it to lunch, I tried to make a point to say hi to rookies, to look at their name tags and great them by name. When lunch time came around, as I sat in the band room with maybe a dozen other people, I decided to talk to some of them. Most of the conversation was as simple as " How's it going so far? " or "how was your lunch? what did you have?" but it was something, and it was out of my comfort zone.
The weird and awesome thing is this though, the more I did it throughout the week, the easier it got. The less uncomfortable it became and it just started to happen naturally. I didn't have to muster up the questions or conversation starters, I just chatted with them. When I was fitting the band with uniforms, instead of just throwing them coats and pants, I asked them how band camp was going, what they liked, didn't like, etc. I think it also set the week up to be great or me. There was a much friendlier nature, and as i actually goofed around and joked with these kids who i'd only known for a few days, it was FUN. I don't know if it was mindset, going out of my way to be better, or the fact that I have an awesome set of people in my section this year that made the difference, but it was incredible! We actually did things as a section, we chatted, helped the pit, did the lunch and dinner thing, it was a good time.
Another awesome moment happened when this one kid was just having a time of it with marching. Foot timing, getting the slide position, hitting the dot, finding the dot, it was rough, and then around tuesday, it's like everything finally clicked and he was marching in time, finding his co-ordinates, and making the forms. He was so proud of the work he put in, and I was so happy and proud for him! It's not "great" yet, but I'm so excited to see where this season will take him, as well as our whole band.
The rookies that we got this year are absolutely incredible! This show was a beast to learn and put together and the attitudes stayed really positive the whole week. I mean we got the whole thing down, and music mostly memorized by Thursday. The whole vibe for this band is on fire and ya'll better watch out for 2014 CCSU Blue Devil Marching Band. We're on fire and we aren't going out!
More philosophical thoughts to come after sleep, coffee, and some contemplation.
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