Let's Do This

UIL Area

The night before, I went back on YouTube. I watched this video a million times.

"Advancing To State."

Uploaded on October 26, 2009.

1,819 views.

"This moment is unforgettable"

7 thumbs up.

I look at it and smiled. Play.

There is a group of students on the stands, staring at the field, listening. The drum majors are lined on the field with the color guard captains. It was oddly still bright because usually it is dark in competitions.

"And the last band to advance to the 4A state marching band contest is..."

I don't hear the next part. I hear screaming. High schoolers are yelling in the video. They're all hugging, screaming, a few crying. The camera turns to the left with the camera holder shaking and yelling, the camera then turns to the seat of the stand, and like always I pause the video.

There is a wallet on the stands. With bold letters, my brothers name is on it. He labels everything like that.

I click play and pause it again. There I see my brother, his hands over his mouth, smiling and eyes with tears threatening to spill out. He was a freshman, just like I am right now.

I finish the video and look at the other videos made by the same youtuber. I clicked one labeled "After advancing".

The video plays and I see our rival school's drum majors. They are the other band in our area that had advanced. Dressed in black and blue, they walk to our band's drum majors. They didn't say any words and just hugged each other. The video played with the high schoolers still screaming in the background and the camera still zoomed into the drum majors. As people started to stand up to leave, the video ended.

That was in 2009, that was the first time my school had ever went to area. The first time when we went to area, we made state. Same with the next time.

Now I'm just stuck wondering if we will make state again.

I turned off the iPad and went to sleep. The next day, is October 26 2013. Area.

~

I woke up at 6:30 to my alarm with the label. "This may be your last performance." I snoozed it.

Yesterday, it seemed like a good idea but now it just haunts me. What if it is? I would look at that alarm again one day seeing that we never made state and that it was indeed our last performance.

I buried my head into my pillow hoping for a five more minutes, but after a minute I decided not to. I got my usual competition attire and headed towards the restroom to shower. Showering is a must after football games but the last night football game, we got home at 1:30 am.

After my shower, with my wet hair and all, I brush through my hair into a ponytail and change into my black basketball shorts, black compression shirt, long black socks, and marching shoes. Then after breakfast my mom and I head to school.

The whole morning before we got to school, I thought of the same thing over and over again, This may be my time performing this performance. Once we don't make it, we won't ever play it again.

Come on Grace. We will make it to state. I reply to myself.

But what if we don't? My other half replies.

Then it will be our last.

~

Area is at the same place of the region contest, which took about an hour to get to. I slept that whole hour with Josh on my shoulder, and him on my head. I would say we got a lot closer, but only as friends, which I don't mind at all.