Day eleven: Pride

For those of you who know me, this is probably a predictable post.

I spent today at the Westlake Marching competition with the Lake Travis Cavalier Band, the band I was a proud member of for all four years of my high school career. I hadn't been to a contest in over a year... I think the last marching contest I was at, I left crying because we, once again, didn't make it to state. I didn't dream that that would be the last time I marched with that band, and not making state was a blow. Everyone thought we would make it, and it was definitely a hard night for us. But, as always, life went on, and it really wasn't a big deal.

I was a band geek from the beginning. My freshman year, I was crazy for band. I thought we were the best band ever, and we had a great show. Rio was my favorite show, infamous for the "noodle." :) We had a pretty good year that year, but Lake Travis has in the past had a second place curse. We never won first. Ever. Second, all the time. We'd sometimes win caption awards, but we never got first. But I still loved band.  And even though it always stressed me out and made my mad, I was still proud of my band. We were a band. A family. One of the best memories I have from band was in my sophomore year, I believe. We got back from a contest that we rocked at, and we were waiting outside the band hall to get in because it was locked. Someone started singing Twist and Shout, and the whole band joined in. We had a blast. All through my four years, we kept getting better and better, and I always thought we were hot stuff. We really did expect to make it to state my senior year. We thought we were so great. In reality, we even got beat by the brand new not-even-technically-a-4A-school's band. We all blamed it on the judges. We said that the judges had it out for us, that they just didn't understand our show, etc etc.

I never realized that we were just wrong. We may have started a legacy of true dedication and determination in the Lake Travis Band, but we just didn't have the right stuff yet. This year, we have the right stuff.

I was so proud of them last week, placing first for the first time ever. But seeing them perform today was just truly awesome. I don't often get chills during high school band performances, but I did during theirs. Wow. It's hard to even describe how impressed I was. I've seen their show at a football game and on youtube, but it's just not the same as a contest. Lake Travis is doing the right stuff. For the most part, I thought we had awesome shows when I was in high school. But I was mistaken. For the first time, Lake Travis has a show. It's entertaining, powerful, clean (although there's always room for improvement ;D), and beautiful. The drill is amazing, the music is amazing, the BDA looks great! I'm so impressed that they've grown so much. It's hard to tell that they don't have guard experience. The pit has grown so much over the past couple of years. And, of course, I'm proud of my widdle bro on the drumline. :) LT's fifth place win today was definitely well deserved. I'm just so impressed that in two years, we went from never making finals at Westlake to being actual competition with the big and talented 5A bands.

Accomplishments aside, though. I kind of rambled about them, but that's just because I'm so proud. Which is kind of the point of this post. Every time, when the drum majors come out onto the field during the awards ceremony, Lake Travis goes crazy and starts chanting. We're always the loudest when they call our name. Even when I was in high school, even when we weren't that great, we did that. If there was an award for pride in one's organization, we would win every year. The fact that alumni come back to contests to cheer the band on, even when they know less than half the band, should be even more proof. Even two years removed, I am overwhelmed with pride for the organization I still have ties in. We succeed because of the pride we have for the organization. I can still see the marks that my class made on the band. The band is where they are today because of us. We were where we were in 2010 because of the previous members. And this year's freshman class will be indebted to this year's graduating class a few years down the row when we win back to back state titles. :) All of us share in the milestones of this year's show because of what we started, whether it was two or ten years ago. It's a beautiful thing.

Lake Travis Cavalier Band's purpose statement is "Pride. Dignity. Professionalism." and I think that it is 100% accurate.

"One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born." 
Antoine de Saint-Exupery