By Kaylee Eiber
Editor-in-Chief
I told myself I wouldn’t write another column about band. I lied. In five days, I may easily experience my last performance, ever. I leave nine years of band with exactly zero regrets, yet I can’t fathom how unprepared I am for an inevitable chapter closure.
At our final performance last year, I remember scanning the band below me as they watched my hands, awaiting my cue atop the Drum Major ladder. In that moment, I made eye contact with a teary-eyed senior about to take his final ever run, his senior speech the exact reason I was crying mere hours earlier.
Just this past Homecoming, I walked down the aisle as Homecoming Princess escorted by my elementary and middle school band director, Mr. Smith, the embodiment of my pre-high school band journey. I won that night–not Queen, but my younger self’s desire to make my entire musical career worthwhile.
With that being said, regardless of how much I’ve invested, I don’t think I would ever go back and do it again, even if I had the chance. My farewell to band would be incomplete without the struggle it took to get this far, and I undoubtedly spent 95% of my time wondering if the struggle would be worth it.
In just this past year alone, I clawed tooth and nail to accept change and to accept that quitting was okay. After quitting the Drum Major program, I watched as the apprentices I trained excelled beyond my wildest dreams. Three of them work right alongside me as my Rampage staff and my favorite apprentice has a feature front and center at the top of this page, leading the band better than anyone could have imagined.
When I leave it all on the field for my final performance, the only thing I will take back with me is these memories when I graduate from the Pride of Temple City. I hate using that word, “graduate,” but it’s the only word that even comes close to describing the efforts I put in and likewise received.
I, without fail, wrote every single sentence of my Kaleumn with tears in my eyes. As the season comes to a close, this group of people will never march the same show together again. After last year, I never thought I would love band again, and I’ve never been so fortunate to disprove that. I found my family in the front ensemble with the best friends, the best instructor, the best memories and a truly unmatched bond.
With the rest of the season quickly slipping through my fingers, all I have left is a senior goodbye speech I never imagined I’d write. Now a farewell for the first and last time, I am proud to present: the Pride of Temple City.