Second-place winner: By Emily Chandler

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.

If you survive band camp, you now enter the fall season. Marching band practice is Monday, Wednesday and Thursday after school until 5:15, but you can count on half a hand the number of times they actually finish at the promised time. Practices are hard but definitely worth the work.

Your section, those clarinetists you were put with in the beginning, have now become your greatest support system because of everything you have endured with them. They become your family, since band takes you away from your real one. You may not like everyone in the section, but you love and care about them all. Imagine that!

Marching band is a unique culture within the culture of a high school. Strange as it may seem, the language and the fashion all reflect this distinct identity. Words like, set, parade rest, shakos, aussies, ictus, hash, dress, flank, check are all words used regularly in band.

Band geeks can have an entire conversation that is only intelligible to their own. Our language and fashion tie us together while making us strange to outsiders.

If you care about how you dress, don't join marching band. A band uniform is a fashion statement, just not a good one. We wear black shoes (called dinkles) and black socks ... with brown pants. As if that isn't gorgeous enough, our hats are like nothing that was fashionable in any century.

Up to this point in the season, band is a lot of work. It's tiring, it's strange, it's frustrating at times, and it seems pointless.

Your friends who aren't in marching band think you are insane for doing this to yourself, and you begin to think that their opinion isn't too far off ...that is, until your first competition. Nothing compares to marching band competitions.

You finally understand why you signed up when you feel the adrenaline rush as you take your place on the field. Performing the show is nerve-wracking, exhilarating and the most exciting thing you can possibly do. All of the formerly mentioned trials seem trivial when you finally see what you have accomplished.

Awards are exciting, but you don't need a trophy to tell you when you perform well. You can feel a good performance before you even walk off the field. When the show is working, everything just seems to click, and you can feel the energy radiating from the ensemble.