Let me just tell, Texas heat plays no games. I didn’t eat beforehand the first day, and I barely drank water as well. I passed out. It was not good, but I’ve learned my lesson. From then on, I never missed a day without drinking water. Marching was weird at first, but I got used to it. You also had to worry about posture and timing. It was very complex. I met a lot of new people too. Every instrument group had section leaders. The section leaders for trumpets this year were Puga and Cassandra, or Cass. Puga was really funny. The stuff he said was just off the wall hilarious. He was a really good trumpet player. His range was just extreme. I wish I could play like him. Cass was really cool. It was also her first year with the band, and she was arguably a better player than Puga. The rest of the trumpets were cool as well. Angel and Johnathan were the only senior trumpets that year. They both had a passion for video games. A’nayha scared me at first, but I’m sure once I get to know her she’s a great person to be around. Brayden was a really chill guy. I swear I had met him before somewhere in New York. Gio was the definition of a laugh box. You could simply sneeze, and she would burst out into laughter. There were two trumpets named Alex. One was a sophomore, while the other was a freshman. The directors nicknamed them Alex Sophomore and Alex Trumpet. There were also two other trumpets named Daniel. The rest of the trumpets were Corbin, Isaac, Kaelon, Braylan, Hector, Christopher. They were all really nice people to meet. Today would be the first day of band camp. It would then last every weekday until the week before school started. It started at 7am, so I had to wake up extra early to make sure I made it on time. I was definitely not used to getting up so early, but I guess I had to get used to it. After eating breakfast and washing my teeth and brushing my face, I changed into some athletic clothing. I grabbed a drawstring bag and packed a bottle of sunscreen, my music, a towel, and a pair of sunglasses. I then had to carry my water jug and my trumpet, which I luckily kept. 6:30am rolled around. Alexis offered to come by and pick me up. Her mom always took her early because she had to get to get to work pretty early as well. When they got to my house, we were on our way to Winter. Alexis’s mom dropped us off near the entrance of the band hall. When we got inside, I realized it was my first time being in the band hall. The locker rooms, the percussion room, and the band office were all on one side, while the rest was just pure open space for anything. There were also awards and trophies on shelves below the ceiling. Carmen ran up to us. “Welcome to the band hall Cole.”, she said. As the time got closer to 7am, more people came. The directors urged us to start going outside. We got into our sections and mingled. The trumpets and mellophones were actually pretty great friends with each other. I heard that they usually bussed together when going to football games and competitions. Jonah and Angela were the section leaders for the mellos. Thomas, Jorge, Kimberly, Alexandra, and Simiran. Alexandra actually went by Alex, so that meant that there were three people named Alex in the high brass section. The directors nicknamed her Alex Mello. So, there was Alex Sophomore, Alex Trumpet, and Alex Mello. Thomas called them Alexi like cacti. It was pretty funny. 7am finally hit, and everyone was in the block as it was called. The side parking lot had football field markings on it. In essence, it was a football field. There were evenly spaced red, green, and yellow dots all over the lot. All of the band members got into a block formation centered on the 50 yard line. One of the directors then called for standby. It was a position where we stood at attention, kinda. We learned it at First Steps. From here, the director would tell us what to do, and then we would get into a set position and start whatever they said to do. The first day was pretty simple. We just went over standby and walking in time. As the week went by, we started to actually learn how to march. All we had to apply what we had already learned. Friday, we even started learning drill for our show. Saturday hit me really hard. I was so sore I could barely walk up and down the stairs. Eventually, the soreness went away, and I realized that my legs were looking really toned. I swear my calves could cut diamonds. As band camp went on, we continuously cranked our drill. By the last week of band camp, we had more than half of the drill learned. We also started putting our music with our marching. It was confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. On our last day of band camp, we played for all of the teachers and staff at Winter. It was really loud. When I got home, I was excited. Tired, but excited. Marching band was no joke, but it was also fun. And the great part was that the fun was just beginning.
