Personal Narrative: My First Round Qualifications

It was January 12, 2013, when a Catoosa County bus carried anxious students from Heritage High to an audition some would not soon forget. In making the first round qualifications, my friends and I had the honor of riding that bus to audition for the GMEA All-State Band. I was making last minute tweaks to my audition piece when the bus pulled up to Perry High School. The air in and outside the bus was thick with anxiety and excitement, yet my two best friends and I remained ready and confident to play our pieces. As three percussionists, we had a successful career up to that point making All-State in eighth grade and qualifying the year after. For two weeks in advance, we worked during lunch and after school knowing that sophomore and senior years were the easiest years to make it. It was only when walking up to the audition room that I felt unprepared as the …show more content…
Devastation and darkness set in around my body like fog upon an illuminated field as my two friends, the ones who I did everything with, made it, but I did not. Upon facing what had happened, tears poured from my face as thoughts of failure and discouragement ran through my mind. How will you go to school unashamed? Are you that bad of a player? People are going to think less of you. Lines such as these infected my thoughts and corrupted my physical strength. I felt weak, useless, and unsubstantial; languid, battered, and drained; discouraged, depressed, and dispirited. As I lied in bed that night, nostalgia ran over me as I longed for the days when “the three musketeers” made All-State together. Luckily, it was to my advantage that I had great friends. They encouraged me the following day ensuring me that I was not as mediocre of a performer as they knew I had felt. When it came for my friends to go to Savannah, Georgia to perform, I was not upset but excited that they got to experience a unique once in a life opportunity that they