By Allison Owen After months of waiting and counting down the days, it is finally time. That's right, on Thursday I leave for my final camp and move-in. The summer is here.

Allison Owen
Move-in seemed so far away when my "journey" began back in the fall. Months of practicing, winter camps, making major decisions, getting advice and many other aspects of corps have brought me to this point. Here I am doing last-minute things as I get ready to leave this "real world" behind. I've said it many times before, I keep getting asked if I'm crazy for leaving my world behind for almost three months. Yes, I am crazy. But I'm not alone! We are all crazy for dropping everything we know and are used to so we can spend our entire summer rehearsing and performing. I know it's not always going to be the happiest place on earth; and I've been told that I may want to quit at some point or another. No matter what happens I do know that I will stick with it and spend my entire summer doing the activity that over the past year I've come to love more than anything else. All this past week I've been thinking to myself "This is the last time I'm going to ----- until mid-August," and filling in the blank with random things like, "Go out to my favorite local restaurant, Amigos," or "Go to my church." There are things that I know I'm going to miss, but I also know that I'm going to have the time of my life in drum corps; so it's well worth it.

After many trips to Wal-Mart -- I know that there are bound to be more -- I think I've finally got all that I need for tour. The cashiers gave me the weirdest looks as I bought random things like over 20 pairs of socks and enough deodorant to last me until I die. I didn't even try to explain why I needed all that stuff, why bother? I'm sure there's something I've forgotten, but I'm not going to stress out too much right now. It's hard to believe that I'm leaving on Thursday and not coming back until August. My friends have been making their summer plans this week. They'll ask each other what the other is doing a certain weekend so they can go hang out and then they'll look at me and start to ask if I want to go along too. Quickly they remember that I've "signed my life away" (as they put it) and change the subject. Sure it gets frustrating from time to time, but I have to remind myself just how amazing this summer is going to be. My adventures in drum corps have been interesting so far, so I can't wait to see what the summer entails for me. I'm still getting last-minute advice from many different vets, but ultimately I don't know what is going to happen. All I know is that this is going to be the most incredible summer of my life.

Pretty soon I'm going to see my first live drum corps show -- which is exciting on its own -- that is, after I perform in it. There is so much to look forward to and I can't wait to see what fun and exciting things are ahead of me. Be sure to check back throughout the summer to see how my rookie summer in drums corps is going. For now I still have some last-minute packing to do, so I think I'll get to that. Best of luck to everyone this summer.