That sentence is a very good sentiment, and one that I have known and lived by long before I ever started college. But hearing that twenty times when you were just cut from the OSU marching band that you had worked incredibly hard all summer for and had ultimately chosen a band instrument in the fifth grade for hopes of being in, you really don't want to hear that. Yet everyone says it.
I've said before that my first semester was really hard. But as hard as the whole semester was, nothing matched the first week.
Sure, there were distractions from my sadness. Meeting the RA, getting to know my roommate, an activities fair where thousands of people walked around the Oval and not once stepped into the grass. But it didn't change the fact that I had been cut from the band less than a week before I moved into my dorm. And it also didn't change the fact that I was faced with the band in a (basically) mandatory convocation. I broke down. I couldn't help it.
And it continued to hurt. Despite warnings, I did make friends, some of whom were in the band. Football games made me cry. I couldn't look at my TBDBITL t-shirt for months. I sobbed when the band was featured on The Today Show. It slowly got better, but for a long time, anything related to band was either accompanied by tears or pangs in my heart.
Oh, and that reminds me, nothing I am saying is anything bad about the band. Some people choose to cuss about it, or say mean or hurtful things, but I can't. I love the band, and will continue to work to get in it. The reason it ends up being so good is because of the competitiveness of those who tryout. But that being said, getting cut from the band is one of the most painful experiences of my life. It is topped only by the deaths of my grandparents, and I swear I'm not being dramatic. Every reaction I had was real. I cried for months about it. It was my dream since I learned about the band in fifth grade from my older siblings. People who don't know TBDBDITL or are band people in general might think "wow. It's just a band. Get over it. " Um, excuse me. How dare you think that about TBDBITL. They ARE The Best Damn Band In The Land. Need proof? take my favorite TBDBITL show, the 2012 video game show, as proof.
See? They live up to their name. And you can see why I want to be in it so darn badly.
The first week, music wise, didn't get any better. I signed up to audition for a concert band and ended up missing the audition by a whole day. And so I ended up in the non-major concert band, which ended up being fine, but at the time, it just seemed to make matters that much worse.
But God really does work in the strangest ways sometimes.
If I hadn't missed that audition by a day, I wouldn't have run into the jazz trombone professor. We knew each other from my attendance at a university jazz camp and my being a member of the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra and his being a member of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.
And if it weren't for meeting him there, I wouldn't have ended up taking lessons with him. And if I hadn't signed up for lessons, he wouldn't have thought of me when the second university jazz ensemble needed another trombonist.
I ended up as that other trombonist.
It wasn't until I attended a jazz rehearsal, and got lost in the music that I realized how everything that seemed bad worked out well in the end. No, it wasn't making TBDBITL, but I love to play jazz music, and I ended up in a really great ensemble (without an audition, I might add.)
I've noticed a theme in these posts. I always end with some paragraph explaining how I still feel a struggle with whatever problem I am discussing and how I will continue to work on it.
But you know what? It's true. Bad things happen all the time, but something good will always come of it.
- I had given up on getting a date in high school until I was in college because I was tall, geeky, and outspoken, and high school boys seemed intimidated. When I accepted it and was sad about it, I ended up meeting the young man that I fell in love with who loves me for the reasons listed above and so much more.
- I quit softball because of politics after my sophomore year of high school. Even though it was my choice, it was really difficult because I loved the game so much and had sacrificed so much. But I was able to turn to theatre and ended up having such a better time with the people, and having twice as much fun with the activity. ( I even wrote a theatre piece about softball.)
- My parents were divorced when I was six years old, and, no, it hasn't been a walk in the park, but some incredible things have come of it. Namely, a truly amazing blended family I have been part of for over eight years now that I love so much, it's not even funny.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Bad things will happen throughout our lives, but something better is coming. It could be a work of God or the universe, but everything has a silver lining, even if it's almost impossible to think of.
No comments:
Post a Comment