winterguard
The last time I wrote in this was January 8th. Now, 4 months later, I'm writing again. I could write about everything that's happened between then and now, and I probably will, but that's not why I started writing in this again. I just needed a place to write and reflect, to think back on what's happened in my life over the past 2 years. I never thought my life would change so drastically, or that I would become such a different person, but I have. And honestly, it scares me. A lot. But I'll get to that later.
So, the past 4 months have pretty much been kike a rollercoaster, one of the ones that you're so excited for, but halfway through ask yourself "what am I doing?!?!", and then at the end realize you made it through and you're okay. Yeah, that sums up the past 4 months. My last entry talked about winterguard, so I guess that a good place to start.
I have really mixed feelings about this past season. Things started out great and we were winning competitions just like we were used to. We all figured that it was gonna be just like the past 2 years when we won every show, won states, and everyone adored us and wanted to be just like us. Even the judges said we had a great show that could do amazing at WGI. Fairytale story with a happy ending, right? Not so much. Somewhere in there something happened that caused us to fall. I'm not necessarily saying that it was Nick breaking his foot or Caylee breaking her femur. Those things just happened to occur between our last 1st place show and our first 2nd place show in 2 years. In my opinion, it was the Dayton Regional. I can't speak for prelims, because we all know how that went. I believe it was everything that happened after that. Words were said, tempers flared, tears were shed, arguments occured, and spirits were broken. The last one's the biggie. I won't go into what was said or anything like that, because this isn't the place to do that. But that was the time where we really started to question ourselves and what we were doing. It was like all of a sudden the standards of the past 2 years were pushed onto us and no one was really sure how to handle it. We handled it by practicing harder, doing more runthroughs to build up stamina. But no matter what we did, we just didn't get the results we were looking for. We eventually dropped to 3rd, a position only 2 members of the guard had ever been in before. States rolled around and we'd had 2 weeks of amazing practices and runthroughs with 2 or less drops each. We trusted ourselves and each other and knew we could bring it at States. But something happened. I don't know what it was, but something happened and we broke. We took home 4th, a huge surprise to us and everyone else in the arena. For the first time in 2 years people weren't wishing they were us, but rather whispering about us and what happened. There's a million things that you could blame, so I won't state any 1 cause for what happened. But I will say this. We had our yearly "end of the year talk" at Worlds. Everyone told how they would always remember this season because of the friendships that were made, scores didn't matter. I even said that, but it was a partial truth on my part. I'll remember the friendships of course, because I made some amazing friends this year. But that's not what I'll remember most. I'll always remember the Dayton regional and everything that occured in the 10ish hours after we performed in prelims. That's what I'll always remember.
I've written a lot. Maybe I'll take time to write about the past few months. Yeah, I like that idea. One entry for everything that's happened. But I'm not giving too many details. It's more about giving you a brief idea of what's happened and then my opinion on it. Somethings will have more details and others will have more opinions, it just depends on the subject. I know this doesn't sound like the silly, ditzy person a lot of you remember, but that's because it's not. People always say how things in your life cause you to change. Well, these past 4 months caused me to change. But more about that later.
So, the past 4 months have pretty much been kike a rollercoaster, one of the ones that you're so excited for, but halfway through ask yourself "what am I doing?!?!", and then at the end realize you made it through and you're okay. Yeah, that sums up the past 4 months. My last entry talked about winterguard, so I guess that a good place to start.
I have really mixed feelings about this past season. Things started out great and we were winning competitions just like we were used to. We all figured that it was gonna be just like the past 2 years when we won every show, won states, and everyone adored us and wanted to be just like us. Even the judges said we had a great show that could do amazing at WGI. Fairytale story with a happy ending, right? Not so much. Somewhere in there something happened that caused us to fall. I'm not necessarily saying that it was Nick breaking his foot or Caylee breaking her femur. Those things just happened to occur between our last 1st place show and our first 2nd place show in 2 years. In my opinion, it was the Dayton Regional. I can't speak for prelims, because we all know how that went. I believe it was everything that happened after that. Words were said, tempers flared, tears were shed, arguments occured, and spirits were broken. The last one's the biggie. I won't go into what was said or anything like that, because this isn't the place to do that. But that was the time where we really started to question ourselves and what we were doing. It was like all of a sudden the standards of the past 2 years were pushed onto us and no one was really sure how to handle it. We handled it by practicing harder, doing more runthroughs to build up stamina. But no matter what we did, we just didn't get the results we were looking for. We eventually dropped to 3rd, a position only 2 members of the guard had ever been in before. States rolled around and we'd had 2 weeks of amazing practices and runthroughs with 2 or less drops each. We trusted ourselves and each other and knew we could bring it at States. But something happened. I don't know what it was, but something happened and we broke. We took home 4th, a huge surprise to us and everyone else in the arena. For the first time in 2 years people weren't wishing they were us, but rather whispering about us and what happened. There's a million things that you could blame, so I won't state any 1 cause for what happened. But I will say this. We had our yearly "end of the year talk" at Worlds. Everyone told how they would always remember this season because of the friendships that were made, scores didn't matter. I even said that, but it was a partial truth on my part. I'll remember the friendships of course, because I made some amazing friends this year. But that's not what I'll remember most. I'll always remember the Dayton regional and everything that occured in the 10ish hours after we performed in prelims. That's what I'll always remember.
I've written a lot. Maybe I'll take time to write about the past few months. Yeah, I like that idea. One entry for everything that's happened. But I'm not giving too many details. It's more about giving you a brief idea of what's happened and then my opinion on it. Somethings will have more details and others will have more opinions, it just depends on the subject. I know this doesn't sound like the silly, ditzy person a lot of you remember, but that's because it's not. People always say how things in your life cause you to change. Well, these past 4 months caused me to change. But more about that later.