Extracurricular War
BANG, CRASH, SPLAART! were the only thing you could hear in the band room. The day was like any other, crisp fresh air, and an autumn breeze coming in from the northeast.
As always the entire school is peppered with students patiently waiting for the bell to ring. I walk into the band room and I am immediately bombarded by the many people playing a mismatch of songs altogether. As I set up my instrument I remember the day I decided to join band for my elective. If I remember correctly it all started around the middle of the year,the day the elective packets were being handed out. As I got my packet and read through the electives a little spark went up in my head.
That spark then birthed a war that would decide the elective I would choose. My brain was then divided into factions were each one represented an elective. As the day went on I got recommendations, each one making the war worse in my head. Join Band, no join Robotics, how about Foods instead. As the day came to an end the war had just begun and I could just hope for the best as the week went by.
The next day rolled around as school had started people came up to me with recommendations for example, “Dude, you should join ____ it’s fun,” or, “How ‘bout you join ____ instead. It felt like the people wanted more new members for some reason. I just ignored what they were saying and kept mumbling things, for example, “Oh, yeah that great just let me concentrate and i’ll have an answer for you eventually. I would say things close to that, but I didn’t know if I could decide which elective to choose. The day had then disappeared as the bell rang and the rest of the week became a blur as I could only remember the day I chose my elective.
The final day to choose my extracurricular activity had begun. The war had gone full force as if each side was not going to give up. One after another each elective was going down, robotics, then library aid and so on the list just kept getting shorter. Soon I realized that most of the electives left to decide from I already knew how to do. Finally out of the blue I saw Band, I didn’t know how to play an instrument and 7th grade was as good a time as any to learn.
I then decided I would choose band and stick with it till the end of 7th grade. The war then ended and out of the ashes came Band claiming victory over the other electives. It is a class where you are put in with other in a band and learn to play instruments, while also performing at a variety of places, soto present day me, it was fun. This choice is important to me because I wouldn’t be in the classes I am in now without it being in my schedule. I wouldn’t have met the people I know, and I wouldn’t have discoveredsomething i’m good at. I have discovered that I like music,i’m good at playing an instrument, and i’m not afraid to try new things.
Without it I don’t think I could have found a passion for me to be doing. People could learn that you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things, they could eventually change you. Once you have changed it begins to become something you enjoy to do.
