where would you be without band?

i was watching America's Best Dance Crew last night and the crews would speak about how they would've been thugs if it weren't for dancing. this got me thinking how this has similarities to band. I asked myself the question, "where would i be without band?" me and taylor hurst discussed this after finishing our CPI survey. i got to hear the background of taylor except more in depth. he had similar experiences as me. we both had to leave a private school to a public school, and thus losing many, if not all, childhood friends. i had some time and few friends and taylor had none. this is when i began to think about the question. I recalled how my brother was in high school. he never joined a club, never did any extracurricular activity, he hung out with the same group of dudes everyday with nobody new. i probably would've been close to that if it wasn't for band. I met so many people in the past 4 years. I also made some amazing friends who i hope to be able to keep for the rest of my life. sure there has been some bumps in the road, but thats just part of life. nothing's perfect.i'm seriously gonna miss band.... even though i'm gonna hopefully be in better musical groups buut stilll its not the same.

Taylor told me how he came straight from private to public in the 8th grade. I remember meeting him. me and dom were one of his first friends in canyon hills. I remember him being so timid that he could barely speak more than a few words to people. and now he's around tons of people with both band and choir.

i've been talking about this stuff lately since my last performance is tomorrow. T____T so many memories. so much time..... soo much love and passion.... devotion.... sacrifice...... enjoyment..... friendship..... being a badass. i'll never forget it. and i'll never forget those that i've spent all that time with. so i guess this will be kinda the public shoutouts for the entire four years! its going to be extremely limited on people.

DOMINIC: I know you probably won't read this buuut thanks for always being there. even though for the past few seasons you pretty busy with michelle ahah. it was still fun. especially this last band season in the hotel! ohh man. i couldn't believe all the shit we did there! that duct tape came in handyy! anyways. its been great. thanks for being my best friend for the past 6 years. all the way back at eagle canyon to canyon hills back in the advanced band. then freshman year, with journeys by rail with us setting the bar haha! sophmore year with FEAR and some more ownage. and Road Not Taken with ultimate ownage. and the of course Opportunity Knocks where it was seriously the most amazing show ever. theres too much to add haha. thanks though. we got to chill and keep in contact even if i do go off to berkelee for grad school.

NICOLE: Things have definitely changed between us these past few months. you going off to college has made it difficult to keep in contact like how we used to be back in band the band classes and stuff. Nonetheless, i can honestly say that my experience in the program would not have been nearly as fun or positively life changing if you weren't there =) i wish we could hit restart, and pause it at our favorite parts (sound familiar? haha. Tiger Lily *cough*). so we shared so much together not just last year, but even as far back as summer before my sophmore year. with the quartet. then marching band again even though i had given off the vibe taht i was a jerk ahah. buut things changed and we were actually beginning to be good friends. thanks for asking me to hangout with you and people! it got me out of the house XD cuz i used to be a couch potato. and then of course year of The Road Not Taken. i never enjoyed life more cuz of obvious reasons haha. i still look back to those days simply because they were so good. you've taught me a lot and i've been able to mature and become stronger from it. thanks for always being there! and now for this year. i was glad to see that you would still come back from UCI with your busy life and all to come see us =) thank you for the support! and once again, thank you for everything.

MICHELLE: feels like forever since we have been able to really hangout! it was fun being able to chill with you though for the first two years of band for me. you also taught me much and made band more fun! i have to say, lunch has beeen lameee. i remember we always were having fun during lunch and just messing around. CTF FOO LIFE!! even if we don't see each other as often, it'll always be with us in our hearts ms. #1. thanks for always being there! buut we seriously need to all regroup! last time was what? HOMECOMING?? daaang. i think we're due ahha!

so i guess i just really limited to it to CTF. Chaotic Triple's Foursome. Calling The Friends. Creating The Fun. Constantly Taming Fires. lol! getting back to the main subject. w/o band, life would have never been as great. thank you Ayala BAC!