I am a member of the Sound of The Choctaws Marching Band, a member specifically of Colorguard. When I was younger I loved watching the band perform at halftime at the football games, the one thing that always caught my eye was definitely “the girls that danced around with the flags” or a.k.a colorguard. I would keep my eyes locked on their every move because I absolutely loved the colors, the costumes, the way they made it seem look so fun and easy. So I knew exactly what I wanted to do in high school once the time came. So what exactly is it like other than all the pretty flags and costumes? I can tell you all about it. I am a sophomore this year and I have done it since my freshman year, so this makes year 2! Last year the pandemic broke out so it wasn’t a normal year in 2020. Now that it’s 2021 and the pandemic has died down, we could have a “normal season”. You’re probably wondering, “What does she mean by normal season?”. Well, a normal season for marching band is when we make a field show, and perform it at our Friday night football games, as well as compete at competitions on Saturdays’. We have our after school practices from 3:30-5:30/4:30 every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This year has been a really tough year, we have worked very hard to get where we are now, not just colorguard but band as well. For marching band/colorguard, you learn drill, which is pretty much where you are at on the field and when. If you’ve ever watched a field show, you may see many different shapes and figures made by everyone on the field, it’s very important that everyone makes it to their correct set or it can literally make everyone else look wrong. To add onto drill and moving and running and counting, colorguard has to learn thier flag routine, meanwhile the band does all that except with music. It’s all a very complex concept for each of us. It’s all very important that we make all our sets, make sure we are on count, counting, and doing the correct flag routine without running into people as well. At the beginning of band camp to now, there has been SO much improvement with everyone and it is such an amazing thing to witness and hear. Aside from all that, our field show this year is titled, “Imagine”. The music includes John Lennon’s Imagine as well as Pure Imagination known from the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The music created a very fun and creative, as well as playful tone to it all. This years field show is a very fun and creative one, which I feel like was perfect to start back our normal year. Unfortunately, this years marching season is coming to an end, Saturday October 22nd is our last competition to end the season. Next Saturday on the 30th, is the competition that we host, therefore we will not be competing. It’s sad to think we are that close to the end but this year has been very fun, and full of hard work as well as dedication. Practices were full of blood, sweat, and tears, but it was all worth it. One of the hardest things about this year specifically is that we are going to be saying bye to some of the best group of seniors. Some of us have looked up to them for 1-4 years. We all wish them good luck to what they accomplish in life afterwards but we are all gonna push even more without them next year to make them proud. Being in colorguard has taught me so much about life, how anything worth having in life is not gonna be easy, you are going to have to work for it. Being in colorguard has shown me that I had a family to depend on away from home, you create an amazing bond with everyone around you and create amazing memories. I will forever be proud of the Sound Of The Choctaw Marching Band! Let’s all do it again next year. Being a member of colorguard has been a blessing in disguise, because no matter how many tears I shedded I realized how much I took with me from it.