Wednesday's Walk, June 23-band geek

I have a confession to make. When I was in high school, I was what they called a "band geek." I played clarinet in the school band from 6th grade through 12th grade and was in the color guard (flag corps) from 10th grade through 12th grade. I even have pictures to prove it (I stole these from a friend who posted them on her facebook wall.)

Here I am in the 10th grade during marching band season. I am the third from the right in the color guard.

This is my junior year of high school. That's me second from the right on the front row.

I never was really that good at the clarinet (mostly from lack of practice) but my friends were in band, so that's what I did, too. So, when Dakota said that she wanted to be in band at the middle school, I was pretty excited for her. I was looking forward to passing on all my knowledge (ha!) of the clarinet on to her.

At the end of the school year last year, the directors from the middle school band visited each elementary school and had the fifth graders try out different instruments. Then, the directors and the child decided which instrument the child was best suited to play for beginning band in sixth grade. Guess what they decided would best fit Dakota! The trombone! They wanted her to play the trombone!

I wasn't so sure how this was going to work out. For one thing, Dakota is not very big. I think she's finally made it up to 80 pounds and she's going into 7th grade. Her trombone is almost as big as she is. For another, I know nothing about playing the trombone. I never could get those kinds of mouthpieces to work right. But, she was pretty excited about it, so I didn't try to change her mind.

Turns out that the band directors made the right decision. Dakota has done really well with her trombone this year. She was first chair trombone in the beginning band at her school from November through the end of school! I was so proud of her!

Here are some pictures from her spring concert. She did a great job!

Great job Dakota!

I'm a little late posting my Wednesday's Walk for this week, but you can still go over to Jenilee's blog and check out everyone else's memories for this week right here.