The Floral Park Marching Knights made history on September 28th, 2014. Expressions of excitement, thankfulness, gratitude and joy were scattered among the 68 individuals, myself included, who had waited anxiously for this day to arrive. On this day, the Floral Park Marching Knights had won first place in their first competition in the history of all of their competitive marching band seasons. The marching band that has always been the laughing stock among the others, had finally made themselves recognized by defeating the number one marching band in the state, known as the Blue Dragons.

As children, we are often taught to give great importance to perseverance and hope. But what happens when you continue to persevere but begin to lose hope along the way? Unfortunately, this was the belief that discouraged many of my fellow marching band members from reaching their full potential. "We have no chance of winning," "Why do we continue to compete?" "We're just Floral Park." This feeling of negativity spread like wildfire and the ounce of hope to win had eluded everyone's thought process.During my junior and senior year of high school, I was selected as section leader of the flute section. With great power comes great responsibility, and I knew that this was my chance to create a change. I wanted the feelings of discouragement to be replaced with motivation, and I can honestly say that a few pep talks and expressing my thoughts with the group had influenced their views and made them realize how much they desired to win as well. One day prior to a competition, my section and I expressed our thoughts on the season. We all listened to each other, made note of what we needed to improve on and cooperated well together.

As section leader, I had many responsibilities but training the freshmen was my biggest concern. As newcomers, there is a lot to learn and a lot to teach, such as marching basics, playing the music, memorization, etc. I did my best to train the younger members by scheduling private one-on-one lessons, sectionals throughout the day, and having lessons on marching along with lessons solely on music. By the end of the season, I learned that everyone learns and adapts to change differently. Some people need more help while others work better by learning from their own mistakes. I learned the importance of patience when teaching, and how to deal with certain situations, such as keeping my section positive and motivated, even when they do not want to be. Day and night, we all worked to our fullest, and in the end, every moment did count.

Along with great highs come great lows, and my junior year of marching band is a great example of that. We started off as a marching band that knew they would always be last in competitions, and ended up as a marching band that believed they have the ability to defeat other marching bands. Could you believe that, within a year, the marching band that had their fingers crossed in hopes of not being last had evolved to a marching band that knows they can place first? During my senior year, my marching band placed first two weeks in a row, and continued to compete, knowing that they could win. September 28th, 2014 is a turning point in the Floral Park Marching Knights band history. On that day, I learned that there is always a reason to keep trying. I reflected on myself from the years prior; the immature child who did not believe that this marching band was capable of winning, and realized in that moment, we were always capable of winning, it was just a matter of how much we wanted it.

No matter how much of a joke the underdogs may be, in the end, the Knights always do slay the Dragons after all.