The Writing Rock

5*

I wear this hat to both lose and find myself. Long hair tucked up inside and brim pulled low above my eyebrows, I blend. At least, that's the idea. If my steps are rolled on the right beat, I will flow seamlessly across the field with my fellow band members. The sound of my trumpet will balance evenly in with the ensemble so that the audience does not hear eighty players, but a single band. Plating and marching in perfect, harmonious unison.

Unless I screw up. This hat is my mask, but also my red flag. If my steps are not contained only to my lower body, the plume sprouting from my head will wobble. If I do not move at the right time, the stripe down the side of my pants will draw every eye. If I forget the music, everyone will hear that something is definitely not right. The whole uniform is working against me.

However, I have had plenty of practice.

I have mastered my hat. I wear this hat to lose myself in the performance and find myself as a musician.

****

The audience is clueless, but they are watching the cumulative product of months of work. Most of them have left for food or are waiting anxiously for the game to resume. They don't fully grasp the performance going on before them. They don't see the dedication.

Only one person on the field is proud of her invisibility. It means she's succeeded. By going unnoticed as an individual, she's managed to melt into the show.

This didn't happen overnight. First, it was learning the music to the most difficult show she's seen in her high school marching career. Then, it was learning drill; knowing which direction to dress lines, where to pivot, moving two feet in thirty-two counts and moving ten yards in eight. Thin, it was time to put it all together; marching and playing piecing together like a puzzle. To top it all off, memorizing. Learning six minutes and fifty-one seconds of music by heart.

The process was long and tedious, and in the end she wouldn't be noticed except by family and friends (most of whom were on the field with her).

This kind of dedication came from the rest of the band. All the audience saw was eighty floating hats.