【 作 者 】 Kate Ma，the student of Ardrey Kell High School, 9th grade
People have many different opinions of marching band in high school.
Some think it’s geeky, some think it’s cool, and some think it’s just plain ridiculous. 
And then there are the actual members of the band — the passionate, hardworking, dedicated marchers who practice for hours every day after school. 
Many people don’t recognize all the work that’s put into creating a marching band show; the planning, the music, the costumes, the props, and, of course, the actual marching and drills. With all the rehearsing we do, we practice much more than any sports team at our school.
I joined marching band because I enjoyed playing clarinet, and my middle school band director had encouraged all of us to join with the warning that it would be a very big commitment.
 At the time, I had seen the marching band perform, and I thought it was pretty cool, so I joined. I was definitely not expecting for it to be so time consuming and physically demanding as well.
When you’re watching a show, the marchers make it look effortless. It looks like they aren’t exerting much physical force, like they’re just walking, perhaps. 
But the detail and precision of a single step is incredible.
I remember on the first few days of band camp, we spent hours just learning how to take steps properly.
I especially had trouble with marching backwards because we had to stay on the toes of both feet and slide them behind each other.
Then comes actually playing while marching. If you’re not a stable enough marcher, then your tone will be impacted severely, with waves of sound coming out with each step. 
And then we have to memorize the music, and then memorize our dots (where we go for each set),  and then put it all together, fixing errors and problems along the way. It’s a long and painful, but rewarding, process.
The feeling when you’re actually performing your show at a competition is like no other.
 It’s exhilarating, terrifying, exciting, tense, and calm all at the same time. It makes you sweat and worry, but it also makes you relax as you go through the motions you’ve rehearsed a hundred times before, falling back into the routine. 
You’ve never marched on this field, but it feels familiar, like home. You put every scrap of effort you have into every step, into every note. 
And when you stand in your final position, panting, sweating, your heart speeding and racing, that glorious rush of pride and contentment arrives.
The cheers are deafening, and you suddenly remember why you do this, why you spend so much of your free time practicing, why you invest your sweat, and blood, your energy into this activity. It’s all for this moment.
Marching band has also allowed me to grow tremendously not only as a musician, but also as a person.
 I’ve learned to become more responsible, disciplined, and involved. It helped me learn how to work with other people even when we didn’t agree on something, which is a very important life skill.
 It got me much more involved at school, helped me with procrastination as it sucked up all my time, and let me join a close knit group of students united by their passion for this activity. 
Overall, marching band has had an incredible impact on my life.
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