As you've probably noticed, color guard is a pretty prevelant part of my life. (Don't worry; I promise I'll eventually start talking about things other than the fact that I'm in guard and how I'm busy because of marching band, etc, etc. :) ) I'm not sure why I'm so into it--admittedly, it is a random hobby--but it has consumed most of my time and effort from May to October for the past five years. During high school, our band would put in about 140 hours minimum per season, which, as a statistic, doesn't seem like that much, but that's quite a bit of rehearsal for a single show. Furthermore, we only have around eight performances per season, so each one has to count, or a lot of time and effort has been wasted, not to mention you feel physically ill when you step off the field disappointed in your work (as opposed to absolutely conquer-the-world euphoric when you know you've done your best).
Sidenote: I'm a performance junkie. For me, it's straight up the most addicting thing in existence. Marching onto a field to a crowd of several hundred or several thousand (or sixty thousand in Jack Trice) and knowing that every person in the stands is there to see me (because, honestly, the band sounds good and all, but they're pretty much just the flagline's soundtrack ;) ) is a fantastic feeling.
Our marching show my junior year was Nightmares--probably the most creative show ever composed. Our guard coach was this incredible lady who majored in theater and has been involved in the performing arts her entire life, so the guard work was superb. I even got a fun little solo in the beginning: we had a massive bed that this "little girl" got tucked in to, and when the music got creepy, I crawled out from under it and danced on it in a deliciously deranged way; then the rest of the gurad spread out from under the bed, which looked like a hoard of spiders and really spooked the audience. Simply put, it was stunning.
Our band had rocked all the competitions that season, and our last performance was at Ankeny. This, we knew, was it. We were standing at the gate all jittery and nervous, the drumline started the taps, we set on the field--and the sky burst open with this downpour of rain. Seriously, it was one of those torrential, Discovery channel, I-feel-like-I'm-in-a-shower kinds of percipitation. Our uniforms were drenched, our flags weighed about 20 pounds each and clung to us everywhere, our poles were crazy slick, and we had makeup running across every spot of exposed skin. But, come on: What's more perfect than Nightmares in a thunderstorm? ;)
Now that we all had to try about 10 times harder to play our horns, manuever our flags, or even freaking see, everyone in the band figured they might as well go all out. The sound: beautiful. The drill: clean (despite the mud ;) ). The flagwork: unbelievable. I have never been so adrenalized during a show before or since. I screamed scary nightmare noises through the entire show, and I looked and felt exquisite. Performing that show was the best feeling of my entire life.
Oh, two fun facts: 1) As soon as we marched off the field, the rain stopped. Not one more drop the entire night. 2) One guard member put so much force into this move (called a windmill) that she smacked herself in the nose and bled all over her face and neck. It was awesome. Morbid, yes, but remember, this was a Nightmares show. Pretty fitting, eh? :)
In order to replicate this feeling of harmonious excitement during my first semester at ISU, I should probably stay caught up on hw/class/band/clubs/other commitments so I have room to feel good and enjoy life instead of stressing all the time about what comes next. I should also relax just a bit and be sure to make time to interact with people, because getting caught in the rain with others is significantly more fun than weathering the downpour alone. Finally, I'll try new things, travel to exotic places, and experiment with new situations, because trying out for color guard was a random (lucky) decision in the first place.
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