Just got back from Band Tour in Disney Land!! Ohhh man, It was a fantastic time, Plain and simple. I found out I talk in my sleep. Kind of embarrassing when you do it on a bus full of other teenagers.... but that's ok, nobody really heard me anyway. Even if they were I don't think they would have given me anything like a cupcake. I got a picture with Mary Poppins! But its not up on the Facebook yet so I don't have access to it quite yet, but still: Mary Poppins. It was a fantastic tour. I was able to have a fantastic time with a group of people I became very fond of. We were pretty tight after 10 rides on "Tower of Terror". My hotel room buddies were pretty cool too, they gave me candy and helped me out even when I didn't tell them why they were helping me. All in all, a very successful trip. I still have yet to find out if that was carbonation or something else they put in the drinks at the buffet we ate at.... ;) Then again, I think I would have been able to smell it if it was something else.
I cannot believe marching band is over already. It kinda changed me life. A lot. First of all, Upon being a part of the marching band, I learned and got pretty comfortable at 4 mallets, an advanced technique where 4 keyboard percussion mallets are being played by 2 hands. At first I had no idea what I was doing, it was uncomfortable, and because percussion techniques use muscles and places on your hand your not use to using, I ended up practically bleeding learning the technique. I ended up putting ducttape on the places on my hand where the mallet had broken the skin. By the end of.... 4 months I would say, I became more comfortable using 4 mallets than 2. I can now sight-read 4 mallet sheet music a lot quicker than I could before marching band. Which is saying something considering I couldn't sight read quarter notes at 70 BPM before marching band. I guess 4 pages of six-sextuplets and 16th notes really does something to your brain. Huh. However, even being that comfortable with 4 mallets didn't change the fact that I messed up so many times at competitions on small vibe solos that saying I held my part of this band seems half-hearted. There is no way I was perfect playing that music, and I definitely wasn't a good leader either. But at least I tried.
This being my first year of marching band I wasn't expecting much toward my direction. Especially being in the Frontline, which nobody really pays attention to because they don't march anyway. On my first year of Marching band, and only my second year of percussion, I was deemed Frontline Section Leader by a unanimous vote. I was never told who made the vote, all I know is that apparently it was unanimous. Upon being section leader I met 12 new people, all of whom were in the section; and even after marching band is over, I bet some of them would still listen to what I tell them to do. There were definite sacrifices made in that Frontline, like going from Vibraphone to Synthesizer. Some were forced to play the music differently to make it a bit easier, for example: some mallet players were forced to play with 2 mallets instead of 4. Not everyone had 4 mallet music, but I would say about half of the mallets had it, and only 2 ended up playing 4 mallets. Well 1 and a half really because one of them was told to play with 2 mallets in some parts of the song. But man, could they play those keyboards. I remember someone was having extreme trouble learning the parade tune that we play while marching parades. If there was a most improved award, it would go to her, by far. She learned the show music, and played it very well at every competition we played at. Kudos to her.
Frontline, you guys truly made it. You learned the music and played it to the best of your ability and definitely amazed me. Upon first looking at our Auxillary players, I was a bit worried. But they pulled through too. Good job guys. I hope you go on to Drumline. Sure, we didn't march, and sure we probably didn't exactly help bring the percussion score up, but hey: we were in 5A, and definitely improved. The improvement some of you guys made is going to benefit your life a lot more than a hunk of metal that says number 1. Thanks for making it a good year, now go do something with your life.
Just recently one of my friends went though a very traumatic experience. Such an experience didn't just affect her but a lot of people around her. I don't have any words of wisdom from myself for all of those people... but I do have a story I heard from a conference talk that helped me feel comforted about the situation. It was a talk by Todd D. Christofferson, in the 2011 April Conference afternoon session. Here is the story:
God uses another form of chastening or correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is the better way for us. President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:Sure, maybe that wasn't supposed to happen. But it was probably an expirience that will help you cope with or deal with something later on in life. Just remember that all your cupcake friends who sing about steak sauce, are always here for you. Hope your day was great everyone, thanks for readin' the blog as always. -Andrew Miles, Frontline Section Leader 2012
“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”
Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:
“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall.
“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. …
“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”
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