As if moving on to campus for my freshman year of college wasn't stressful enough, I was moving in two weeks early to spend each and every day until classes started with 150 people I had never met before. I was terrified, to be honest, and I really didn't want to leave my Mom. After spending the past nine years in bands where I was familiar with the other members, I was not ready to dive headfirst into a group of people that I had never met before. I was not ready for the "encouraged bonding" or the awkward first-time interactions.

OK, maybe I was being a little negative because I was missing home, but I noticed my bad mood soon enough and tried to make the best of it. And, making the best of it was the best choice I could've made on that first day.

I didn't know it then, but the first girl that I talked to outside of my own section would soon become my best friend and my roommate for the next three years. The three girls that I bonded with the most would soon make the rest of the marching band season one that I would never forget, and are friends that I hold to this day, even if we don't always have time to see each other. Freshman year was not as terrifying as I imagined it would be, and I have marching band to thank for that.

But, I have a lot of things to thank marching band for. So now, three years later, I'm here to say thank you to my college marching band. Thank you for accepting me as I was as a nervous freshman and making me feel like I belonged. Thank you for making each and every practice and football game memorable, even if our team lost. And most importantly, thank you for becoming my family. I never would have imagined that 150 people from places I've never been could be so similar to me and feel the same love for music that I feel. If marching band has taught me one thing, it's that you don't need to be related to someone by blood for them to feel like family.

I feel like I got lucky; I chose a school that I loved, and it came with a marching band that I loved more. But now I'm a senior, my days are numbered and it makes me think about the good times I've had in college all thanks to marching band. Leaving high school, it never crossed my mind to skip out on marching band and I feel that my gut feeling to stick with marching band was the right decision and is one that I would make over and over again.

Leaving this band will be one of the hardest things I'll have to do because of the love I've felt, from the people and for the music, for the past four years. Thank you again, marching band, for being everything I ever wanted you to be.