Isabel Garcia is the 2012 drum major for Gold Drum & Bugle Corps. She has been a member of the corps for six years, beginning as a member of the front ensemble in 2007. She became assistant drum major in 2009 and is now entering her age-out year.
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The last official audition camp for Gold was April 28-29. For me, that weekend started with the morning drive to Laguna Hills High School. As drum major, I have to be at the site before anyone else to help set up and get ready for registration. I saw many familiar people as well as unfamiliar ones so I tried to make a mental picture of those people I didn’t yet know but who would soon become my family.

Right after registration, we went into stretch and run. Now, while I shamefully admit I hadn’t had time to run in a week, my muscles seemed to go on autopilot. It’s like they already knew what to expect and how to do everything without my brain having to even think about it. The temperatures and humidity levels rose as the day progressed and the staff made sure to give enough water breaks. I think it’s safe to say that it’s been the hottest day for us so far. Being located in SoCal, we are blessed with good weather. However, with the help of plenty of water, sunscreen and a good hat, I didn’t get too sunburned or dehydrated. The same can’t be said for others who ended the day with red arms, shoulders or necks!

As the end of the day was approaching, the temperature finally began to cool down. I was mostly with the hornline listening to the show music being played. And even though they were cold and slightly tired, they pushed through all the way until the end of rehearsal. Tired eyes and droopy smiles came my way as I said good night to everyone. I made sure our site was clean before I closed up. Finally, almost an hour after everyone was dismissed, my long day was over and I could get some rest and a refreshing hot shower to wipe away the sweat, dirt, and sunscreen from my body so that I could be ready for another day.

I woke up on Sunday wanting five more minutes of sleep, but I knew I had to get up. As I slowly turned on the lights, I began to get dressed, thinking of how I was already a few shades darker than I had been on Friday. My drum corps tan was coming back!

The next thing I new the morning block was gone and I was savoring the last few bites of my lunch, then we went straight into music block. The assistant drum major, Joselyne, and I walked to check out the battery. At the end of that day, everything was quickly chilled by the evening wind. We retreated to the bandroom for a meeting with our corps director, Dr. Don Flaherty. The band room was nice and toasty but soon stuffy with the smell of sweaty, tired bodies. I looked around the room proudly, thinking of all the hard work they had accomplished this weekend and how much more we’d progress before the season was over. I dismissed them and locked up, feeling exhausted but accomplished.

Not until I was back home, showered and ready for bed, did I realize that this was our last audition camp. Winter guard and drumline are officially over. Yes, for some (myself included), school is still in session. Graduations, proms and final exams are still on their way.

But drum corps season is here.

I can smell it in the air, I can feel it in my bones. It made me think about how the season was almost upon us and how rapidly it would disappear. By this time next year, I will no longer feel the aching back and the sore feet or smell the of sweat intermingled with sunscreen. I won’t be wearing running shoes or hauling speakers and mets and batteries everywhere I go. No, I won’t be doing that. It reminded me of what our corps director said at the meeting…

He told us that drum corps is literally a once in a lifetime experience. Never again will we be with the same people doing the things we are doing now. So we should take advantage of each moment we have, before we are old, thinking about the things we never did.

Being an age-out makes me think about how I want to enjoy my last year but being a drum major makes me think about how I want everyone else in the corps to enjoy this year and cherish each moment they have with one another.

No excuses. No regrets.

(In my home kitchen, 1 month after our last show, 8/17/11)

The sun had long set but the shining of smiles filled the lot at Bellflower High School. We were fortunate enough to rehearse there last year for a few weekends, but I’d never seen it under the moon.
Just hours before, we marched onto the field, feeling loved and hopeful. With this show being the closest to many of our families (and it being their last chance to see us), we had an overwhelming array of fans show their support in the stands. But once we were on that field, we only had each other to make the next ten minutes something magical. If you ask any marching member about what they were thinking during a show, they usually can’t remember a single thought, but they will tell you exactly how they felt.

This is the power of performance.

Drum corps has given us all the opportunity to connect with each other on a level deeper than words and Facebook notifications. It challenges you in ways you never could have imagined. You were never as tired, sore, hungry, sun-burned, sweaty, home-sick, happy, determined, or prepared in your entire life. And reaching these extremes is a gift in which you are able to discover yourself and for a brief summer, you absolutely know you are alive. Even a season half the length of others was able to pack just as much. Feeling these pains and emotions is like the test-pinch you give yourself to know if you are dreaming.

And yet the greatest part is that you go through this along with some of your closest friends. These people not only experience everything that you do, but they also shape your experience, as you do theirs. Together, you create a summer full of magic. I am who I am today because of the 4 seasons I have marched with these people. They have changed me in ways others can’t even imagine. The craziest part for me to understand is that I was now the vet I looked up to all those years ago. By sharing what I know and helping in every way I can, I may have molded someone else’s unforgettable experience. It’s all cycle of learning and love.

GOLD came into my life very swiftly but its lasting effects have yet to simmer. It is a month after that last show with my 2011 family and I still can’t believe that moment has passed. Well, all those moments really. I miss everything about it-good, bad and ugly. Like one of our age-outs said “How weird is it going from waking up, showering, eating, pooping, etc. next to someone everyday and all of a sudden you never see them?” It’s hard missing something and someone this badly but I am thankful for all the memories of the summer I get to relive until new ones come rushing in.

When someone asks me what I did all summer, I can tell them that I spent it with friends. Or that I played with my band. Or that I ran around in my short shorts, along with 100+ other boys and girls on football fields in different states. All of which are true but none are complete without the simple fact that I did something I loved.

Thank you, GOLD 2011. You, the reader, I would especially like to thank for opening your heart and embarking on this journey with me. I only hope that whether you are a rookie or veteran of the game, this blog has allowed you to enjoy a new experience with me. It wasn’t ever easy, but I don’t regret the challenges that have forever changed me. The music, the people, the feeling….That’s drum corps.

(show day morning, 7/16/2011)

Without even opening my heavy, sleepy and worn-out eyes, I knew this:
1. It’s a show day.
2. Someone made pancakes. LOTS of pancakes.

I had the extreme pleasure of staying at the home of one of our hornline members, along with 15 other people! Good thing we all know how to crash cleanly. Drum corps definitely teaches you how to travel and be creative when it comes to finding space to sleep. So I reached for my glasses and look around the kitchen to see people migrating to the table laden with juices, preserves, butter, syrup and PANCAKES—absolutely homemade. Any one parent that can whip up enough delicious pancakes to feed 15 hungry and growing drum corps members is amazing! It looks a little gloomy out from the kitchen window but judging by the love flipped into every bite of breakfast, I KNOW we are going to have a good day. It’s a show day!

A few relaxed good mornings and laughs and it’s off to rehearsal. There’s so much I want to say to the hornline on the eve of our last day, but I bite my tongue and let them handle business. I’ve always thought of a good leader as someone who gives others the tools needed to carry on without them. Leaps and bounds from where we started, it’s magical witnessing the growth from such a young group of performers. From bettering as a musician and marcher, to becoming a more responsible and courageous person, drum corps is an opportunity like no other.

And with hardworking, devoted and loving parents and supporters by your side, GOLD is a home like no other. I am thankful for all the food, donations, aid, advice, wise cracks, encouragement and love you parents and supporters have given us. There is absolutely no way we could have been the corps we are today without you. And without a corps, there wouldn’t be a hornline or a horn sergeant! Love—and pancakes—make this corps happen.

And I’m ready to make this show day happen! Or rather, ready to let the members make it happen!

(Friday, 07/15/11 after rehearsal)

I am in our host band room after a long day of cleaning, detailing and kicking butt. It took all of yesterday to end at the energy level we were looking for, but thankfully, today started out just right. Well, minus the morning sludge (how is there June gloom in July?!).

Alright this weather is not what we were hoping for, especially coming back from the monsoon madness of tour. But if you can march your show through a swampy field, you will definitely fly on the field! There is no way we were going to let some clumps of grass on our shoes hold us up. It was funny seeing all the grass gathered from every rep fly off everyone’s shoes while running back to their sets. Some members got a little creative in shaking off the grass and made it into a little dance!

The day definitely picked up from there, and so did the weather. Most of us were barefoot for sectionals because we wanted our shoes and socks to dry up. And we had some fun with a little surprise family time during our music block! It was just what we needed to rev up for the LAST full ensemble block on our LAST full day of rehearsal of our LAST weekend together.

Oh yea, believe you me, the words “last”, “final”, “ultimate” and “end” were used to our hearts’ content today. It is even bittersweet for me just to write about it right now. But I promised myself I would save my tears for the age-outs (there are eight in the entire corps). For now, I’m going to admire the yellowed shirts (from the sun block of course), rehearsal shorts and all the dried mud on our legs with the turf in our shoes. Oh dear, we look a mess!

Alas, my GOLD family is amazing and I can hardly fathom the fact that next weekend, I won’t be doing this.

*Deep breaths*

Geez, even breathing brings me right back to the horn arc! There is no escaping the drum corps! But then again, who ever really tries to leave?

(on the bus, 7/15/11)

We just arrived at Ontario High School after a very exciting bus ride! There was the usual uniform maintenance and hair preparations but today we had the genius idea of playing some music to pump us up! Okay, probably the most obvious genius idea, but never-the-less it was awesome! One of our age-outs provided us with a great mix of Eminem, Black Eyed Peas and The King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. Everyone sang along when MJ’s “Thriller” came on! So lesson learned? If you are on a bus with 40 or so musicians that get hyped when they hear music, maybe you should play music to get them hyped!
Ready for a great show!

(07/14/11 After rehearsal)

It is a glowing Thursday evening and things are much better now that the morning gloom has long passed. A general feeling amongst members has been that tour was too short! Well, it’s always been but this year, as soon as we got used to being on the road during the week, BAM! We are back home. We had a couple days back at home where nobody unpacked and everybody was practicing on their own. So, suffice to say the return back this morning was a little sluggish.

But that’s not what I wanted to share with you….

Let’s face it: where there is great love and family constantly together, there are bound to be a few bumps in the road. As horn sergeant, I always want to see happy faces from the bus to the field and back again. I’ve been in leadership positions before, but never like this so when trouble does arise, the human in me is not perfect and I can lose myself in the heat of the moment. As someone who hates conflict, I think it took me all summer to figure out just how to become better at resolve people problems.

So please allow me to share with you some helpful tips and suggestions that I’ve struggled with and learned how to better deal with over this season. :]

-Approach the person(s) calmly and ask to speak with them privately at a time you find most appropriate. Take into account the severity of what you need to discuss with them; if it’s nothing too bad, it can wait until break or after rehearsal.
-Once you are with who you need to talk to, take a second to assess their mood. If they are upset, make sure you LISTEN to what’s on their mind. Pent up frustration and aggravation should be exhaled slowly (maybe through a recap of their day) so that they can be at ease when you finally talk about the issue.
-Remember, you are their friend foremost and 98% of most problems can be resolved with a friend’s kindness.
-If you ever encounter behavioral problems, make sure you lead the discussion in a way that they realize on their own what they’ve done is wrong. Scolding and yelling at a person will only leave you feeling guilty and the other person even more upset.
-When there is tension between two or more individuals, make sure you talk to BOTH sides. Even if you feel only one is causing the trouble, there is always more to the story.
-If you are ever personally involved, make sure you are stable before attempting to talk to anyone. You don’t want to corner a person if you don’t feel okay yourself.
-Don’t be scared to ask for help if you don’t know what to do in any particular situation!
-Truthfully, sometimes you aren’t the best person to deliver the message. There are section leaders and other veteran leaders that might better get the message across sometimes. Use your team!
-Breathe and reboot. Try as I might, I’m not superhuman and neither are you. Sometimes the problem might just be that you need a little break.

One of the hardest things I’ve had to realize is this: I thought that being horn sergeant meant I had to be a machine that put everyone else first and forget about myself completely. But nobody wants to listen to a grumpy leader. As this season rapidly comes to a close, I wish not only for a longer competitive season but more time with the family I’ve been too worried about to enjoy most days.

So if you will excuse me, I’m going to join my section in some dinner chat and good grubbin’.
They have no idea how much I will miss them……

(7/10/11 Free Day in Downtown Denver, CO)

No, I didn’t see anybody wearing all of those at once! But my, oh my, how odd it is to go from seeing all these people in their section shorts and white shirts (or no shirts) to dressed casually in their own styles!

Every year we experience this same silly shock factor on our free day. And with all the very tan faces and fit bodies, the clothes just don’t literally fit like they would during the rest of the year. It’s a fun little phenomenon.

We are going to spend our free day in the beautiful Downtown Denver and cross our fingers that it doesn’t rain on us! I am currently at the Museum of Nature and Science, just to geek out on all the facts about Denver wildlife and such.

But I somehow worked out on my day off! A friend and I rented those B-cycles to get here from the 16th street Mall (which is about 3 miles.) It was a pleasant uphill ride in the muggy Denver climate but I am enjoying myself now as is the rest of the corps!

We have a long drive ahead of us so I’m making sure I get my legs moving as much as they can until we head back home!

(Show Day 7/9/11)

This is it!! INVESCO Field at Mile High Stadium is right here before my very eyes! I’ll admit that I have Googled this stadium many times but I am still marveling at the sight of this extremely large venue. Never in my years at GOLD could I have possibly imagined that an opportunity like this would come. Not even when they announced this tour back in January did I believe it. But here we are. And though there are clouds hanging overhead and flashes of light fill the lot from the puddles of morning rain, it is a beautiful day!

My head is scrambling, wondering how I’m possibly going to pass the next few hours before the show, or the show itself. What do you do when you reach what you have been striving for, dreaming of for so long? Is this performance really that much different from a show at any other high school field? Do you change the intensity in your stance, the fierceness in your gaze, or the intent in every phrase you play?

Of course not!

We have worked this long and hard to do one job: perform. Whether we are scantily clad on a make-shift field or at the Broncos’ stadium in full uniform, our job is to perform our show.

I know exactly how I’m going to spend the rest of this warm-up time and our performance. Vets in the hornline have been passing wise words to the rookies all day about over-hype. We will perform today just as intensely as we have been preparing for it. At the end of the night, you are performing for each other. For your fellow members, the instructors that guided you, the dedicated parents, your kick-you-in-the-butt-when-you-need-it director and all the fans that are proud enough to sport some of your gear.

At the end of the night, your performance is meant to illuminate a community of people with a similar drive and passion for this activity. Your show, your season, your summer is dedicated to creating a family that will give 110% from field to field, day in and day out.

This is it, everybody! Tonight, GOLD, from beautiful Southern California, is stepping onto a field far from home and plans to expand the community we have been building since 2005. This is why we perform and this is why there is so much heart in this corps. We do it for each other.

And tonight is no different.

I am marching for all of my fellow members, past and present. This is for you, my GOLD family. All we can do now is what we have been doing all along.

So, don’t be scared to revel in the glory of it all. I hope EVERYONE enjoys the show tonight!

(7/8/11)-Show Day in Loveland, pre-show

The weather was a lot more demure this morning! A beautiful sun and rehearsal facility welcomed us warmly. We were all very eager to rehearse since we lost all that time yesterday, even though we did manage to hold sectionals in individual rooms last night with imagined run-throughs on our mouthpieces.

During todays rehearsal, we only made it through our ballad before the weather made a repeat offense during our last run. The rain beat down hard, the lightning struck quickly and the thunder rumbled loudly but we were better prepared this time to help the pit AND the horns get to a safe place.

After sack lunches and quick showers, we are on our way to our second out-of-state show in Loveland, CO.

Oh, and whats this? A snack, too? If you guessed popsicles, you know us too well! Thanks so much to snare drummer Evans family for the surprise popsicle snacks as a delicious reward for working hard!!

Now, show hype is the sweetest treat and were craving some tonight!

See you in a few, Loveland!