Hey Band!
You probably don’t know me — my name is Alex. I graduated from UD in 2011 and was a member of the UDMB Altos for 4 incredible years. Band was, without a doubt, the best part of my experience at UD. I was, at best, an okay musician, but it was never about being the best individual musician. It was about contributing to something greater than yourself, being part of a family, and making music together.
When I graduated from UD in 2011, I wasn’t sure what I would do with the rest of my life. Long story short… somehow, 10 years later, I end up working in an Emergency Room in the middle of a global pandemic.
About a month ago, after a hectic and draining shift, I get into my car to drive home. After a few minutes, I hear a ‘ding’ from my phone, and I realize that I haven’t started the car yet. I am just staring off into the night, zoned out and really feeling the weight of my exhaustion. The ding was a text message from an old friend from the Alto section— she had sent me the link to a YouTube video of In my Life played by the UDMB. It was the 14th anniversary of our first day at band camp.
It was almost midnight, and I really needed to drive home and go to bed, but I just couldn’t do it yet. So I hooked up the phone to my car speakers and played the video. 5 minutes later, and I am crying. Well, not just crying… more like gross-crying. And it felt great. I felt the stress of the shift melt away — maybe even more than just the stress from that particular shift — it was almost like, for a moment, the stress of the entire past year-and-a-half had melted away. I pulled up the music library on my phone and played my UDMB playlist as I drove home.
I bet that marching band this year probably feels different and sometimes may even be a bit stressful. But please know that what you do is essential. Never forget the effect you can have on others and the benefit you can bring to others. And that there might be a 30something-year-old guy bawling his eyes out in a hospital parking lot because of how happy you made him.
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