On November 4th, 2013, I competed with Newman Smith Marching Band in the 2013 UIL 4A State Marching Band Contest in San Antonio, Texas. It was a pleasant day with clear weather and temperatures in the high sixties. One would think that with such nice weather, our band would perform well at the competition, right? Well that didn’t seem to be the case.
The night before the contest, some band members, mostly upperclassmen, were acting childish at the hotel we stayed at. They were running down the hallways, entering other members' rooms past curfew, wanting to stay up late, and mainly doing things that would hinder them from being prepared for the competition the next day. This made me beyond frustrated. And yet, I didn't say a single thing to them or the band directors. I was just a mere sophomore and they were upperclassmen that outnumbered me and outranked me on the informal high school hierarchy. I felt completely powerless
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Whoop dee doo. I wasn't surprised of their remarks. However, when it was our time to compete in the preliminary rounds, we turned our game faces on and performed the best they could. Afterwards, we waited anxiously for the announcement of the ten bands that advanced to the finals round. When all ten bands were announced, Newman Smith wasn't any one of them. We all sighed in great displeasure of the announcement. Our band director then came over to tell us our exact results. What I heard next made my heart sink. We made eleventh place; one spot off advancing to finals. I suddenly became flooded with thoughts of last night. If only I had done something to make the band members sleep on time, maybe they would have been well-rested for the contest. Maybe we would have had a better performance. And maybe we would have made finals. It was a remorseful moment for me back