A New Life

The first time I picked up a rifle, I knew I had a talent that I never really expected. When I say ‘rifle,’ I don’t mean the shooting kind. I mean the spinning, tossing, and catching kind. Football in Texas is big, but it’s not always just the sport that draws people out to high school football games. It’s the halftime show- Colorguard. Choreography. Marching Band. Drumline. All new terms to me. Even with limited knowledge of the whole ‘halftime show’ concept, I wanted to be a part of it.

At 12 years old, I wanted to do something new and exciting; something completely different from usual comfort zone. Monday afternoon. I was sitting in middle school Study Hall when 3 high school girls walked into my classroom. They were on our high school’s dance and colorguard team called “Lorena Legacy.” I was dazing in and out when suddenly I focus my attention on them:
“We want to start a middle school colorguard/dance team. Our high school has one if you didn’t know, and we were thinking it would be a good idea to get younger girls started before they reach the high school level.”

I didn’t know exactly what they were talking about, but I signed up anyway. Try-outs were in two weeks. I showed up for practices where we were each given a flag on a 5ft pole. This could be interesting. That’s all I remember thinking. The skills we were learning were simple: drop spins, speed spins, single tosses.. that was about as complex as it got. I went home after practice disappointed. I was expecting a challenge, maybe something dangerous even.

The next week of practice was pretty much the same: drop spins, speed spins, single tosses. My friend Audra and I were on the same page. We were bored. The high school girls who were teaching us could tell. “Here,” one of them said and handed us a white, wooden artificial rifle. It was sleek, wrapped specifically in white tape. It was kind of end heavy too. The girl who gave us each a rifle, Adrianna taught us how to hold it, but we knew exactly what to do with it after that. Right away we started spinning and tossing it around like we had done this before. Adrianna looked at us and knew the future of Lorena Legacy was in good hands.

We both made the team, along with 13 other girls from the seventh and eighth grades. As sixth graders, Audra and I were named Captains of the team for the following year. The only downfall? Because of practice schedules and colorguard’s association with the high school marching band, each member of our team had to be a member of the band. Band was not my thing. When I lived in Georgia, Band was for nerds. People in Band were the stereotypical ‘Band geeks.’

Great. I loathed the idea of being in Band. I was an athlete. Being in Band was something like social suicide, right? Well, yes. But I was able to find a loop hole. I had good rhythm, and lucky for me the Drumline director noticed. After a short, simple audition, I had made the Lorena Drumline. Apparently, at our middle school being in Drumline was cool. Band? Not so much.

I ended up being an expert ‘cymbal girl. ‘ It may sound ridiculous and corny, but playing the cymbals was an art. It was more than just crashing every so often. Cymbal players often set the tone, keeping the beat so the drummers stay together. They create a visual by having actual choreography to add dramatization to dull spots in the music. Before my freshman year of high school, I mastered the art of cymbal playing. But that’s a whole different story..