In no means my best work but it's for a stupid online class.
One
event that significantly impacted my life was my decision to participate in the
Oregon Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps for a summer. This is an activity that
takes you away from your family to tour around the United States to perform a
10 minute marching band like show. This organization stays at schools and other
facilities for at the most 2 weeks at a time in the same location but most
often moves every 2 or 3 days. We would wake up in the morning at 7 AM and not
be able to go to bed until 11PM. During this time we would rehearse in between
95-103 degree weather on most days in the sun and without breaks. It was by far
the hardest experience of my life. Unless you have seen or participated in one
of these programs it is impossible for someone to understand the magnitude of
just how hard a summer like this can be. One of my jobs as a percussionist
member was to load and unload 17 large instrument on an off of a semi-truck
each time that had two levels every time that we moved locations. This was
always a large task and never very much fun and was always frustrating to do
because with only 7 people it took anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.
During this summer I had been going through a rough patch in my life emotionally
and after only 2 days of participating in this program I wanted to quit. I have
always been someone who sticks with things eve when they are not fun and I am
never someone who gives up easily but I wanted to quit. What I realized thought
was that if I quit I would be letting my team down. They were relying on me to
be there and to do a job and by quitting I would be leaving my responsibility
for someone else to do. And because of that reason alone I decided to stick it
out for the whole summer. And the happy ending would be to say that it got
easier and more fun and I was glad that I stayed with the group. However, it
never got easier and it never became more fun. But because I had dedicated myself
to the cause I stuck with it. I learned a lot about my own personal strength
that summer. I was having a hard time emotionally going into it and I still was
when I came out. But I learned my own ability to push through hard times. It
has a huge impact on who I am today because I know that if I put my mind to it,
no matter how hard something is for me, I can accomplish it. The experience
also taught me about the level of independence that I can have. I learned I don’t
need to rely on a significant other in order to be my own person. The
experience that summer was definitely not a good one, but it has given me
something that I can use to go forward when I am scared or fearful of failing.
Now when I look at a big task before me I can say to myself that if I did a
full summer of drum corps, I can do anything.
