Is your guard ready…

Midterms are over, thank God.  Math was the biggest fail known to man, but Environmental was easier than I had thought it would be.  I’m just happy they’re over.  I feel like I can relax a little now.  Friday night I got a  letter from Millersville.  I wasn’t going to open it out of fear of not getting in.  I knew I would be upset all day at guard if I didn’t .  But I opened it and I got in.  It was a huge relief.  I didn’t think any college would ever get back to me.  

Sweeney is going… well it’s going.  I think some of us are a little confused by the progress.  We love some parts of it and are disappointed by others.  It still doesn’t really seem like ours and it really doesn’t seem like we are even in a show.  Maybe it’s because we have such little time and we have to be serious and on task when ever we are on stage.  idk.  I just hope it gets better.  I don’t want my last show to be a miserable one, especially because it’s Sweeney.  

So um we had our first guard competition last night.  It was a long day I’ll tell you that.  6 hour practice, 2 hours on a bus (with no heat), at the school for over 4 hours, and back on the cold bus for 2 hours.  I didn’t get home until after midnight which is unusual for indoor.  And to top the lovely experience off, the school didn’t get us a truck or a cargo bus… which means we had to snake our floor on and off the bus twice and put 11 chairs on it too.  It was not fun in freezing weather.  

We didn’t have an awesome show.  I dropped my solo six on rifle and then proceeded to mess up the rest of my solo slightly.  I didn’t toss a triple on sabre.  I just wasn’t the best.  But I have a good feeling about this season.  We performed for percussion before we left.  I had a really good show for them.  Caught my five, six, and one of my quads on rifle awesome.  And the other quad wasn’t too bad.  I just feel like if we can have a fairly decent show this early in the season… who knows how good we can get.  We are also have some difficulties with the music, because it’s a little hard to count to.  I am currently listening to the song on repeat hoping that somehow the rhythm and counts will seep into my brain.  I’ll probably be able to break out into a perfect rendition of Red, Red Rose by the end of this.  But yeah, once we get the counting down things will get a lot easier.  One the way home I sat and just looked around at the rest of the guard.  I’m gonna miss this when it’s done.  I really am.  At practice on Thursday I had thought to myself, “What if I didn’t do this?  What if I didn’t have to deal with all the stress that goes along with being in guard?  My life would be so much easier.”  But on the way home from the competition I realized once again that I couldn’t imagine not doing this.  Sure I may be much less stressed.  I wouldn’t have a skinny, gay black man telling me I’m not trying, when I putting my all into something.  I wouldn’t have to deal with coming off the floor crying because I messed up my solo and felt like I let the entire guard down.  I wouldn’t have to get frustrated when I couldn’t achieve something that I thought I should have.  But I would also miss out on so many things.  I love guard.  I really do.  Standing on a gym floor, covered by a painted tarp with a hundred or two or three people around you… it’s awesome.  I’m really excited for this season, hopefully I won’t be disappointed.  Stay tuned.    

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June . O my Luve’s like the melodie, That’s sweetly play’d in tune