Second-place winner: By Emily Chandler

Imagine that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that 230 high school kids can work together to create something awesome. This is called synergy in the Davis High Marching Band.

Students give up time, friends, sleep and grades in order to participate in band. Some call band kids obsessive, brainwashed or just plain crazy, but in truth there are good reasons that we subject ourselves to the tradition of marching band.

You first get sucked into the system that day in junior high band class when they pass out the yellow cards. The card looks innocent enough. It asks if you are planning to do band next year, and if so, marching band, concert band or both. Most kids around you check both boxes. You think, "What's the harm?" and you sign up. Marching band plays in the parade on the Fourth of July ... right? Wrong.

It all starts in parade season, but that is just a training ground, a place to break in the rookies to the idea of marching. The field show is true marching band, and most people don't even know what one is! A field show ... isn't that the thing they play at football games?

The first day of summer band is shocking. You feel that you have been drafted into the military without your knowledge. Suddenly you are placed in a section with a bunch of frightened rookie clarinetists and put under the leadership of a senior who is crazy enough to do band for three years.

You are forced to stand at attention. If you break set (smiling or moving), you have to do push-ups! You are also taught to mark time. What the heck is marking time? Everything is completely alien, and it is frightening. They make you stand in rows and practice glide stepping. Doesn't a marching band march, not glide?

You think you have survived the worst when summer band finally draws to a close. However, they haven't told you about band camp, also affectionately referred to among veterans as "Survivor Delta." They say camp is where you will learn the field show, whatever that is. You are packed off to camp, hardly understanding what awaits you.

Once there, you quickly realize that when you signed your name on that band contract, you sold your soul to the band director (Mr. Hendricks). You also finally understand what a field show is because you spend 12 hours a day learning one. Band camp is hard. They drop you off some place near Delta where all you can see is sagebrush in every direction, and a fence that the trumpet section likes to pee on. It's windy and hot and you drink about four gallons of water a day, and use a bottle of sunscreen every two hours.

You learn the show on that field, the show that will become your life for the next three months. More than 80 sets make up a show. That means you have to memorize over 80 spots on the field and march to them while playing your supposedly memorized music.

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