Day 2: Helping Others Helps Yourself

June 12, 2011

58 days - Blue Band Officer Week
65 days - Blue Band Marching Auditions/Band Camp Begins
83 days - Penn State vs. Indiana State

I ended up staying up quite late last night, just thinking about marching season, getting myself so wound up that I couldn't sleep.  I don't think I've ever anticipated something so much before... last year was a lot of adapting, growing, and going through the "firsts" with the role - teaching the first fundamentals session, going through the first stretch/morale session, commanding a block of 320 marchers for the first time, the first flips in the stadium, the first time conducting fight songs; the list of firsts could go on for days.  Even though it was all unfamiliar to me, they were some of the best moments of my life - I honestly never felt more alive or a stronger sense of belonging.  I hope the second time around I'll do everything more than "just alright"... for now all I can do is look forward to those sweltering hot ten-hour days of band camp that are so near and dear to me.

Today I spent my day with my two best friends, Justin and Brandon.  Crazy to think we were in the same kindergarten class together, played in bands for 6 years, and we're still hanging out all the time.  We're all musicians - I play bass and sing, Justin is a drummer, Brandon plays guitar.  We came out to Brandon's place today because he has started his own amplification company - building guitar cabinets from scratch.  We spent the day helping to finish up his very first one, applying some of the Tolex exterior to the wood frame.  I'm excited to hear it once it's finished.  The moral I take from it is sometimes the gratification of helping others improve is a way to improve yourself, something I've learned from being an Eagle Scout and organizing charity events for the Lance Armstrong Foundation when I was younger and into cycling.  After that the three of us went out for dinner at a local restaurant and caught up on life.  

Tonight I'll be spending time setting up Pyware (the program used to electronically chart marching band drill) and beginning to chart the halftime show for the Wallenpaupack Area High School Buckhorn Band (my alma mater where I was also drum major for two years).  I'll be charting the opener and closer to their Latin-themed show, "Mambo" and "Evil Ways", and then running a marching fundamentals session with the freshmen on August 10th (coincidentally also my 21st birthday, celebration will have to be postponed one day).  I'll post some charts here as I go along.

Looking forward to laying in the sun on the community beach all day tomorrow and charting before I do an upper body and ab workout in the afternoon.

Thanks for reading.