"Getting it"

By Allison Owen During a lunch break at our camp in the beginning of January, a few corps members were interviewed for the Memphis newspaper, the Commercial Appeal. Since I was sitting with my friends Matt (who was being interviewed at the time) and Jonathan, I was lucky enough to be asked a few questions too. One thing that stuck out in my mind during this time was something Jonathan said: "You have to be half crazy to do it." At least once a day I'm told how insane I must be if I want to march drum corps, so I'm often reminded of that lunch break at camp.^ Quite a while back I mentioned my friends from school and their lack of understanding drum corps. Now I'm glad to say that I'm making some progress with them -- slowly but surely. For instance, in winter guard class the other day we were working on this dance portion of our show work and we were unable to get the right "mood" for it. Since we were in need of inspiration I volunteered to bring in the DCI World Championships DVD so we could watch the Cadets dance in "Malague?±a." After thinking it over everyone decided that this could be pretty cool. Of course I was just excited to allow them to see the activity that I love. So this coming week we're going to spend some time watching drum corps in class. A couple of my friends (who are in the class with me) were really eager to watch corps and wanted to get together during the weekend to watch it. It didn't work out, but the fact that they really wanted to watch drum corps was great. While we talked about the details Katy even asked me if I "had corps this weekend." Now this question may not seem like that big of a deal, but I saw it as a "breakthrough" in her views on drum corps. Even the way she worded the question was different than anything that I had ever been asked by someone at school. She said it so naturally, as if it were something that she would say anytime. Not that anyone has asked me this before, but it was so much cooler to me than if she had said "Are you going away to that drum thingamajig this weekend?" I may be reading too much into such a simple question, but I really appreciate the effort that my friends are putting out to understand the activity that I've come to love so much. I've found ways over the past months to help them "get drum corps" and begin to see the activity as I do. Something as easy as watching the DVD in class or showing them the pictures of drum corps is helping them begin to understand drum corps better. Slowly but surely, they are beginning to "get it." Sure there are still some people who think I'm insane and see drum corps as "signing my life away," but I just laugh at these comments and go about my way preparing for my most unforgettable summer. I've learned to not get frustrated when people don't see what I love about drum corps. As Jonathan said, we must be half crazy to do what we do. Maybe I'm the only crazy one in my group of friends, but you know what? I like it this way.