Saturday marked the official end of my third season with the Cavalier Marching Band. I’m not sure what I thought I would get out of this year, but I’m pretty sure the reality far exceeded even my wildest expectations.
First, I (successfully) made the not so small switch from piccolo to tuba. When my directors first approached me about switching instruments, I was skeptical: my best friends were piccolos and I had never even attempted to play a brass instrument. But the band desperately needed tubas and I love a good challenge, so I decided to take them up on their offer. The beginning was a little discouraging: it was hard to go back to the basics, where playing a single scale was a monumental feat, but the more I played, the more numerous the little victories became.
And then there was band camp, where I learned just how much effort it takes to carry around a 30-pound “metal hug” all day. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to get to know the members of the tuba section- it’s hard to imagine life now without the vibrant characters I met there. ”Tuba problems” are very real and unfortunately occur rather frequently, but they taught me how to take them in stride and laugh about them later.
This was also the first season in the band’s new home: the Hunters Smith Band Building. This state of the art facility is an unbelievable legacy, and I am grateful for every chance I have to take advantage of it.
To make things even better, the football team excelled beyond anyone’s predictions. Watching the crowd rush the field when we defeated then #12 Georgia Tech 24-21 will go down as one of the best moments of my life. (I cried a little, if you must know.) And then we beat Miami. And Florida State. No, we didn’t beat VTech, but an 8-5 season was fantastic (and there is always next year.) Yesterday was national signing day, and I am already getting pumped for the fall.
Through the combined efforts of our football team and a strange twist of fate, we were selected to attend the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve. The trip was a fantastic whirlwind. In the span of four short days, we put together a great show and experienced a fantastic city. While the outcome of the game could have been better, I am proud to say that we put up a good fight against Auburn (the defending national champions.) For me, the ultimate culmination of my marching season was playing the best tuba of my life on the field in the Georgia Dome. It was as if I was experiencing a moment of “living poetry.” I could not have picked a better way to start the new year.
The annual banquet, affectionately called “band prom,” is one of my favorite events of the year. Everyone gets all dressed up and we reminisce on the past season and recognize those who helped make it happen. I love hearing the directors tell an anecdote about each graduating fourth year (this year it only took them an hour.) It is difficult for me to imagine the CMB without this year’s graduating class and picture myself as fourth year. My greatest surprise was when the band honored me with the “Unsung Hero” Award. Words cannot express how much I love the CMB and how much this means to me.
Go Hoos!
] And hope to muster that same determination and courage not to quit when the “going gets tough.”
