“Keep in line!” My coach screamed like she was going to burst. I straighten up. Breathing heavily. Scared. “Rain drops are falling on my head…” I look to my left and the guy walking next to me in line is singing. I chuckle to myself as his singing calms me down. We walk into the stadium and see hundreds of people and a few bands. One band is still performing. We’re next… They finish up. Oh no… We start walking to the end of the field, into our lines going off the 45 yard line. I look out into the audience and see more people there than at a football game. I take a deep breath one last time before we are whistled to start moving.

I make it to my spot before the 32counts are up. I look around at the positions of the rest of the color guard, and position myself to make the arc less straight. The whistle blows and the band members start playing and moving into their next position. I move. My flag twirling at just the right time along will all the other flags. I smile. I look around at other flags to make sure mine isn’t going to fast or to slow. The others do the same. The first song has ended and we were all together and we knew it. We were happy.

As the second song begins, I get scared for a moment. The last performance I messed up right at this spot. I go down with the others and up at my spot. I did it! I smile bigger now. The rest of the song goes exactly like the first. All together. And the rest of the performance looks like we are all one person.

When we walk off and go to our seats, we pass another band. “That was awesome” “You did wonderful” “Amazing”. They loved our performance, and their comments made us feel like we could climb a mountain. 2 weeks, 8 hours a day and just one performance before and we looked like we had practiced non-stop. Even with hundreds of people watching, we performed like we were one person.