Page 61 - 2019 Senior Will

Skip This If You’re Uninterested & Want to See If Your Name Is In My Will
High School with the Manalapan Marching Braves
My freshman year of HS, I wasn’t able to actually march due to field hockey conflicts. I sat on the sideline and waited for my day to come. I didn’t really get to know anyone, and no one really knew me. I struggled quite a lot that year, with adjusting to HS, finding the right friends, and dealing with my seriously declining mental health. I felt pretty alone and like I hadn’t found my place. I chugged on and hoped that it would turn around next year.
Sophomore year I began marching on flute, and fell in love with the art and the teamwork of it all. I made some friends, got to know my band director better, and put in extra effort to catch up. I got some brownie points by showing that I could play the flute pretty well in concert band.
Junior year, I took it up the smallest notch and asked to play piccolo. There were only supposed to be 2 piccolos (the more ‘experienced’ people in the section), but my director let me in as the 3rd. This gave me a small boost of hope. Later that year, I tried out for drum major mostly on a whim. Originally, I thought I wouldn’t be qualified to lead the band because I wasn’t “experienced enough”. I ultimately threw caution to the wind, decided to get some confidence, and a personality, and go for it. The worst that would happen is me not getting it, which was likely (in my head). Here comes the moment things really changed.
My band director posts the results on our bulletin board, and quickly gets out of there to avoid seeing the tears of the disappointed auditionees, the drama, you know the deal. Before I even get to the board, I hear some of my senior friends cheering and saying “THAT’S LITTLE BRI!!!! YAASSS, GIRL!!!!” I thought in my head, “no way...” So many thoughts came rushing through. I felt my eyes water as a few of my friends ran towards me to hug me and congratulate me because I had gotten assistant drum major. (We all knew who was going to get head drum major - he had it comin’.) But assistant, me? I couldn’t believe it until I walked up and saw it with my own eyes. I really had done it. Things were about to change big time. I was going to be up there leading them. I would get to go to Drum Major Academy. I was going to have a voice, the face the freshmen see, the one they look up to. Me.
My life really changed when I went to the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy. Luckily, many of you have gone and have experienced the magic. You arrive one way, and you leave another. The speeches given and lessons taught truly touch you in an unusual way. I dreamed of being in Heidi I. Sarver’s band. It was that week at DMA that made me want to positively change people’s lives forever. Even outside of band. Because - if you do band right, you know that it’s much larger than the ensemble. There are life lessons learned and things to takeaway that you can’t learn through field hockey, through studying hard, by being popular.
Senior year, I took my position and I ran with it. I wanted to know all of the freshman. I wanted to make band special... to be Santa. I wanted them all to love it so much and to give them what I didn’t have my freshman year. One person they knew they could count on. To make it their safe space just like it became for me. And I know that I did, if even for just one person.
Alright, this is getting too long. Dammit, Bri. I KNEW this would happen!!
College with the University of Delaware FIGHTIN’ Blue Hen Marching Band
Okay, fast forward to freshman year at UD. (I’m sure you can fill in the blanks. I wanted a school with a marching band, preferably a good one, I knew Sarv was at UD... voila.)
I was a flute rookie. I could feel the intensity, passion, and pride of this band. I was READY FOR IT! However, being in the flute section just wasn’t doing it for me. They were nice of course, but I