To be honest, I could write an ENTIRE blog about my trip not just one post! I would write about how one random person I took a selfie with at Disneyland ended up going to college with me and we have been best friends and drum majors for 3 years.

I would write about all of the countless reunions I have had with members of the band since 2017; how the Rose Bowl Stadium ended up being my college home stadium; or how my best friend and I became such close friends with people we met in the band we ended up staying in Ohio for a few days with them after DCI Finals.

But, my most memorable moment is from the beginning.
It is funny, even though the week of BOA TOR 2017 was the most fun and enjoyable week of my life, the moment I will always cherish is when I got the email saying I was accepted into the 2017 Bands of America Honor Band in the Rose Parade early in 2016. I had spent four years waiting to audition, as the seniors from my freshman year of high school had participated in the 2013 Honor Band.

I spent lots of time asking about their experience in the band, and listening to them tell their stories and every single time I thought to myself “I am going to do that.” To be quite honest, at that point in my life, it was the biggest thing I had ever been sure of.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I didn’t even know what I wanted to have for breakfast the next day. But I knew that I wanted to be in the 2017 Bands of America Tournament of Roses Honor Band.

There were also 7 other students from my school’s band program that auditioned, so that Friday morning, we were all nervous wrecks outside the band room, refreshing our emails over and over and being ready to celebrate or console our fellow members once the notification emails came out. I remember one of our trombone players got his announcement first, and we all tried to figure out what the algorithm was. Was there an order to the emails being sent out? Some pattern to this madness?

Then, the time came. I had received my email, and at that moment nothing was more important. I got in! The other 6 members received their emails as well, and that morning there were rounds and rounds of hugs, congrats, and sighs of relief. I even remember our band director being out there with us. And there, that memorable moment, was where this whole amazing journey started.

I ended up publishing a vlog with more memorable moments from my experience: