Marching Band. You might associate those two words with a bunch of kids who are either too wimpy or too weak to do a sport. But let me tell you, marching band is tough. I’ll rephrase that; Marching Band is probably one of the most taxing activities you will ever come across.

We stand outside in the sun for hours on end, working on what looks like the most mundane things. Take one step. Stop. Take another step. Stop. Take four steps. Stop. Go back to your original position and repeat for the next two hours. True, this exercise helps us improve our technique, but I would say that it takes a certain mindset not to go crazy after a while.

Then, after that initial learning phase, we go to working with instruments. It’s basically the same exercise as I mentioned above, except now you need to lug around a piece of metal that seems to become heavier as the minutes go by. Thought that the flute players were the weakest of the bunch? Think again. They have to stand there with their flutes at a perfect 90 degree angle from their bodies for the duration of practice (an equivalent would be the feeling of doing 200 arm circles). I’ll give you a piece of advice, my friends: Be wary of those flute players; they develop a good amount of punching strength. And don’t even think of messing with the people with heavier instruments. Ever heard of a tuba or a baritone sax? It takes some serious muscle to be able to carry that around.

We have also got our fair share of unreasonable demands. One time, when it was 85 degrees out, we were told to stay inside because it was too hot outside. One week later, when it was 107 degrees, we were told to meet down by the field for practice. Where’s the reasoning in that?! On that day, nearly all of us began sporting red blotches on our arms and legs.

Next we have our competitions. Think our uniforms look weird and uncomfortable? Well, we agree with you. It’s not a pleasant feeling walking around in that on a hot summer day. Especially when we need to walk, play, keep our feet in time, and worry about our position all at once. The end result is that we are in extreme pain; it’s around 100 degrees, we are stuck in our uniforms with no way out, and the hats just make everything ten times worse.

Once you join marching band, it becomes your life. You practice almost every day during class and after school three out of the five school days of the week. Oh and don’t forget to add in the Friday football games and Saturday competitions. Now you might say that it’s a small price to pay to have the rest of your year free, but it’s not. See, marching band only gives you 5 physical education credits, and the requirement to graduate is 20. Sure, you can switch to kinesiology, but would it really look that good on your college application? Probably not.

To sum up the situation, we have unfortunately committed our entire high school life to marching band, whether we like it or not. So the next time you see us practicing on the field or in competition, don’t point and laugh, because this is what the life of a band geek looks like.