Another OC Essay Thing

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.