By Allison Owen Tan lines and strength aren't the only things that are starting to form after my first week of drum corps. We have had a very productive time so far and things are only going to get better as time goes on. The weather has threatened us a few times -- like the tornado warning at camp last weekend and the huge lighting and thunderstorm on Wednesday night -- but we have pushed through it all and are accomplishing many things.

A Memphis Sound rehearsal
We had camp through Memorial Day and then started everydays on Wednesday. I had no idea what to expect for what some refer to as "death camp." But as the week went on everything became routine drum corps became the only thing I had to worry about. Sure it's hard, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it's also something that I know I can't just give up on. Every time it starts to get hard I just have to keep pushing myself and think of how awesome it's going to be to perform our show in front of thousands of people. Typical days for us start out with stretch and run for about an hour and then we go into visual block and learn and clean drill until lunch. During the afternoon we have sectionals until the dinner break and then we have more visual until we're dismissed that night. It's a long and hard day, but as our visual caption head, David, says, "Being out here like this isn't for normal people." We all have that desire to be out there working all day long and making the corps better as well as ourselves. In the end I know all this hard work will be worth it and I'll be able to look back in amazement and what we accomplished over a few short months. When I left for Memphis I knew that I was moving in for a summer of drum corps, but it didn't really hit me until this past Friday or Saturday when we ran three-fourths of the show straight through for the first time. As we were all tired and out of breath at the cut off I realized that this really was drum corps and nothing in my life would ever be like this. I came to the realization that I'm really marching in a drum and bugle corps, I am living out a dream.

I don't know what to expect this summer, but I do know that in the end all the hard work will pay off. In less than two weeks we leave on tour, so there's a lot that needs to be done. Right now I have some practicing to do, so I think I'll get back to that. Hopefully I'll be able to write weekly, so keep checking in.