What I Think I've Learned

(The following is my college application essay. In all honesty it was thrown together hastily but I am more proud of this essay than of probably anything else I have written.)

I was used to just drifting through life without a real purpose. I never crossed onto a trouble-making path, and my schoolwork was always important to me, but I never felt that I had a goal to be accomplished. There were a few small hobbies I had, but nothing substantial or long lasting. Then, high school scheduling came around and I unwillingly signed up for marching band, under pressure from my parents. Little did I know that that class choice would change my opinion on many aspects of life, whether they were large or small.

A typical freshman upon entering the first day of band camp, I had no idea what to expect. My main goal was to not screw up since I was getting graded and did not want an unnecessary blemish on the all-important report card. The first lesson I learned was humility. Although there were no real instances of “hazing,” the freshman were treated as one would assume, namely poorly and with little respect at first. Mistakes were made by me and the rest of my class, but soon we knew the general routine and could function during a rehearsal. But, whenever one of us would start acting like we knew it all, there was always an upperclassman around the corner waiting to tell us how we missed ten notes during the last song. I have tried to keep this sense of humility, even today as a senior, because it helped me to realize that I am going to make mistakes every day, and very often someone will call me out on those mistakes. I cannot let these mistakes bother me, however, and having humility to begin with helps me see that many mistakes are small and that I can let my larger mistakes simply “roll off” of me without bothering me in the long run.

Once band camp was over, the traveling began. We would not only go to our school’s football games, but also to local competitions, which would host close to twenty to thirty schools’ bands weekly. It was at these competitions that I had my first peek outside of my “bubble” placed around the school district within which everything is the same and, some may say, boring. I saw bands of all different sizes, representing schools that were both more populated than mine, and quite smaller than my school. I noticed schools that had much more diversity than my own, something I was not particularly used to, coming from a school that is notorious for having students with mostly uniform backgrounds. These new experiences taught me my true role in the whole of western Pennsylvania, let alone the whole world in general. I realized how much more there was to my local community, and I thought to myself, “Wow, if this is the turnout from just a few schools within miles of here, I cannot imagine how large a statewide competition would be.” Since then, I feel like I regain my appreciation for the grand scale of the world around me every time I travel with the band to a new location with vast amounts of new faces I have never seen before, and will probably never see again.

As I continue into my final year in the band, I find that the small amount of wisdom I have gained from the first three years was only the beginning of my lesson plan. The lessons this year, however, are less about my individual outlook and more on my ability to co-exist with others around me. I have learned patience by dealing with the wide-eyed freshmen who have no idea what to expect and are just afraid of screwing up. One could easily become frustrated when their pupil has seemingly forgotten everything they learned the day before and can no longer walk in a straight line. Fortunately, seeing this pattern repeated daily, I have discovered better ways to teach, explain, and deal with the frustration in a healthy manner once my teachings and explanations fail. Because I know, eventually, the freshmen all learn how to function independently, and watching them succeed is worth the stress beforehand. It also does not hurt to remind them of the notes they missed when they start to show cockiness. I have also been able to learn team building skills by working with my fellow seniors on several projects, including an annual awards segment at the end of band camp, a tradition that helps let off some steam from the toils of camp and strengthens the bond between upper and underclassmen. Our class contains forty-eight members who all have varied and passionate opinions, so obviously work can be slow-paced and annoying at times, but we have all learned how to listen to each other, consider the suggestions of others, and lead the group when we see fit, all of which are skills that will help us for the rest of our lives in future endeavors such as our careers and creating a social network once we are all unceremoniously thrown into the real world.

I have been called “band geek” many times before. I have had to give up countless Saturday nights to attend competitions, and have never cheered my football team on with the rest of the student section because I was busy playing with the band. But, if I stand back and really weigh the pros and cons of my time spent as a member of the marching band, I can easily say that the life lessons I have gained are worth not painting my face green and gold and screaming at the top of my lungs after every touchdown. If there was one thing, though, that I will take away the most from not only marching band, but from my years in high school in general, is that I really do not know anything yet in relation to the real world and the way things work. That is why I want to go to college, to see if my experiences there will help me uncover a few more of life’s inevitable lessons, and to maybe expand my real world knowledge, as well as my educational knowledge.

Introduction

Hello to anyone who has happened to find this little blog thanks to the 243^rd page on some Google search. This is my first venture into the blogging world, and I admit I don’t really know what I’m doing when it comes to the bells and whistles of a blog, so expect nothing but simplicity and decent to proficient writing. I have no real purpose besides telling good stories (or stories of mine that I feel are good enough for people to relate to) in order to entertain the masses. I like to call myself Man #3, partially for anonymity, and because I think that it represents a role that I fit into quite well. I’m the guy from the party scene in a movie who was near the action but in the background. Not the main character in the story, but important enough to be mentioned in the credits. Just so you can get a sense of my perspective on things, I am a high school senior, so I apologize in advance if my opinions or views seem “immature.” However, I think my posts will be general enough to be relatable to most audiences. I plan on making this blog a collection of observations by someone who sits back, views, collects, interprets, and spits out his views on the actions around him. The moods and topics of the posts will vary depending on what in my life happens to inspire me to write. And in case anyone follows this, the frequency of posts will also vary, depending on my work ethic (or lack thereof). I felt the need to give some background before jumping in, so now that this is out of the way, I’ll start posting the real meat of this blog soon.

Hope you enjoy it. (If anyone happens to read it that is)