I am a 2nd year trumpet player. I have won awards for my playing and I can officially say “This one time at band camp…” because I went to a Band Camp. But before last Thursday I had never marched on a field, or played in the stands at a football game. But I did. It was amazingly fun and I loved every minute of it.

When you walk in, it’s all the same as a football stadium. But when you go behind the stadium to the truck with all the band instruments, every one is wearing your shoes, your “snazzy” jacket, and your tuxedo pants for uniform. And even though these people look familiar, they’re not. So you cross the bleachers, up some stairs, and in direct view of everyone in the stadium, you sit on cold icky bleachers. I found my bands trumpet players, who were in fact, as lost as I was. We eventually got split up and I was mixed with another band, though familiar with the people not the music. I had to learn a few songs and sight read a bit, but it turned out OK. We talked a lot in between songs and we had to learn these little chant thingies and different movements to accompany certain songs. I had lots of fun up in the stands with the people whom I had met only once or twice that shared my interests.

At halftime we went onto the field, got into position. I swear, a drum major is a scream metal lead singer in disguise. Attention. That’s what she says. We hold up our instruments. We play, we play well. Even with the wind blowing our instruments back and the cold air trying to block our air passage, we played. And it was fun. And I wondered what the people in the stands were thinking. I still do, but maybe when we walked back to the truck to put away our instruments and kids came up to people telling them how great the band was, I put two and two together.