Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Few Thoughts Going into Today

Remember, this is subjective environment. Anything can happen today. We can be points up, we can be points down. In a subjective medium like marching band, we literally go with a clean slate every single week since the judges are different at each and every competition. Do not let the judges scores define how we feel about ourselves. We are the “most powerful and fastest growing band” in the field band conference. Our band has gotten significantly better year after year, just look at our youtube site. Everyone in the activity knows this. I told the band that we are the “train” an unstoppable, momentum gaining entity that nobody can stop. Never forget what we are doing and how great we are getting year to year. That 8 point spread two weeks ago was huge, I will not lie. The other bands think they have stopped our momentum, stopped our resolve. They haven’t. We just hit a speed bump, that’s all. We fell apart, pure and simple. A bad day. No matter what the judges think, never forget that. Do not let scores define us. Yes it is hard, we are in a society that is defined by the wins and losses. But in this activity anything can happen at any time. Like baseball, any team can win that 5 game series in the first round of the playoffs. In Marching Band, we are even in a better position since the weekly scores really mean nothing until the dome, the final competition in the “Big Room.” Look at the year we got 2nd at the dome. One week before we were 3 points under Division Avenue and slated to be the bottom 3 in the class according to the scores across the state. We should have come in 9th out of 12. Instead we received 2nd place! That 3 point lead that Division had was for all practical purposes unbeatable. We defied the odds and beat 8 bands that we shouldn’t have beaten! Act, think, and perform like champions. Be patient, the scores will come.