EVERYONE: 31 days of 5-minute free writes
I had zero self-awareness as a teenager new to a very small school system where almost everyone had grown up together.
I moved to Lake Butler, my parents’ hometown, in 10th grade. The prior year, in 9th grade, I had gone to a huge school. I had been an incredibly enthusiastic band member (playing flute). I had gone to multiple “solo and ensemble” contests in middle school and 9th grade, earning the medals that are seen on the uniform of Union County High School, which I enrolled in when we moved.
My previous school had been a “9th grade center” and we did not have marching band, so although I did wear my medals, it was for concerts and the like. Other people wore theirs too — it was what we did.
I grabbed this picture recently to show a friend when the topic of “outdated band hats” came up (I mean … really!).
Seeing this picture again reminded me of how I really should have read the room (if I had had the — as I said — self-awareness to do that) before entering the UCHS band room for our first uniformed performance.
Maybe it’s my imagination (still), but the general reaction to my decorated chest was not so much, “Wow, she must have accomplished a lot at solo ensemble contests,” but “Really — WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?”
I’m not sure, in retrospect, what I would have done differently. The medals did mean a lot to me. I earned them, and it was the custom in marching band (I thought) to wear them.
Yet, I wish I had given everyone a chance to get to know the undecorated me first.
