Drama is Poison

When you are part of a tight-knit group or family, being broken apart by something like drama can be detrimental to your purpose and soul. In the Marching Tigers, we have 200 members and there are people who do not like each other and people who do. That is expected. As a band we need to learn to put aside anything that is causing us to not get along aside.

Poison can be suprisingly fast. When it enters a body it spreads with each stressful beat of the heart, spreading further and further doing more and more damage to the body. If it is notstopped poison eventually destroys the body killing the soul and life that once inhabited it.

Drama works exactly the same way. Something happens between two people who are members of the band, more people get involved who really should not, and it spreads to lines, sections, rehearsals and eventually it will damage something very important to the band, such as a rating.

At a first look you would not expect drama to have anything to do with good rehearsals, but it absolutely does. When you do not get along with someone you do not work well and the band as a whole does not work well. We even get worse as the drama insues. Also, it is a common misconception that what you do outside of band functions doesn't matter. Absolutely worng. The choices you make when you're not with the band (or with the band for that matter) reflect on the band itself, as band students we are under a scope, that is just how it is. That is something we all need to understand: what you do affects 200+ people who are your family.

I said I would keep you updated, and no we did not qualify. We recieved a II rating. We will have to go out again this weekend and try and qualify. There is no way we will qualify unless this drama is stopped. There are too many situations that are affecting too many people. It is doing so much harm to our directors, friendships and most importantly, the band. As members we should all care about our success and one another. We go through a lot together. We deal with stress, worry, nerves and even exciting fun times.

Each of us needs to take some time and think about what is happening to our band. We need to realize that what we gain from drama is no where near as important as doing our best and qualifying for state. Mr. Sewell is right, we are a family, families do not just stop being families and stop working together just because of some disagreements, they learn to put them aside for the betterment of the family. This needs to happen for the sake of our family, especially the father figures, our directors. They do so much for us, the least we can do is work hard and TOGETHER for them.