Council Rock High School North Color Guard of 15 girls verses Penn State Blue Band Silks, a strong 34 person guard!
Ever since high school I have been immersed in my school’s marching band color guard (you know, the girls with the flags) program. I have fallen in love with everything about the activity. Learning all of the drill and the flag work were some of my favorite past times. Now, ever since joining Blue Band, my love of marching band has grown. However, the time commitment for a college activity is much more than high school. In order to keep up with school and extra activities, you must manage your time very strategically. A lot of time and effort must go into practicing for a college activity.
For marching band in high school, we practiced Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with football games on Friday and competitions on Saturday. In Blue Band, we also have two days off but the amount of practice and the difficulty level is so much more intense. On Tuesdays, the band has practice from 7:30-10 BUT the silk line has to go in up to an hour beforehand to learn and memorize the show’s work for that week. It is very strenuous, especially on top of school work.
However, after surviving the stressful week of learning a whole new show in one week, going to the games and performing in front of the Penn State crowd is incredible. During high school band performances, we would play during half time while the crowd left the stands to go get food. The only people watching us were our parents and the people who came for the band. Now, people go to the football games at Penn State and love seeing the band! Working hard throughout the week is definitely worth the cheers we get from the fans after our performance at the football games.
Advice for students who want to continue an activity:
Make sure you absolutely love it! College activities can be a lot more intense than in high school so make sure you put 100% into the activity or you are just wasting your time, and everyone else’s too!
Make sure you do not overload your schedule! It is great that you want to join 7 clubs and join an IM sport along with taking 15 credits a semester, just make sure that you are not overloading yourself with work. School always comes first, remember, that is the main reason you came to college!
Have fun! Whatever activity you chose do, make sure you are having a blast!