When I think of glory days, I remember the days where I played tenor saxophone in band with all my best friend. Saying that out loud now sounds extremely nerdy and weird to me now, but back then, I sat in the band room for an hour and a half and met some of the best friends I have ever had in my life and learned some of the most important life lessons. Towards the end of fifth grade, my school let all the fifth graders come to the cafeteria to see all the musical instruments and if we wanted to, we got to sign up to be enrolled in band and play whatever instrument we wanted. My older sisters where both in the band, so I was somewhat forced to do it as well. I wasn’t that excited, but when I held that big shinny tenor saxophone, I knew I had to have it. That is when I met a teacher that has changed my life forever, Mr. Phillips. He put that saxophone in my hands and said, “Try to play something little lady!” and at that moment I wrapped my entire mouth around the mouth piece and blew out a squeak so loud and obnoxious the whole school could hear. I started laughing and he immediately scolded me. He said “You cannot play that loud! There are other students trying out other instruments!” and to that my response was “I don’t care I’m going to play as loud as I want! I’m the only one you need in the band!”. And then he said something to me that I still remember to this day and probably always will remember. He said, “Sometimes in life, it’s okay to ask for help, sometimes the army gets the job done better than one lone soldier can”. Mr. Phillips became my instructor when I got to high school and based off the first impression, I gave him in fifth grade, I knew he could tell he had his work cut out for him. He taught me all freshman year and the entire time I was first chair. I was so proud of that placement and really thought so very highly of myself that I would play my music knowingly louder than the two lower tenor sax chairs below me. He took note of this and quickly replaced me with the girl who played second chair. I was heartbroken and begged for him to give me first chair back. He said my test would be summer marching band and that is where I learned how to truly be a part of a successful team.
When I first signed up for summer marching band, they held an informational meeting for all the parents. They had them sign at least fifteen pages all about the specifics for uniform fittings and bus schedules for marching in the summer parades. I believe the meetings usually ran for at least an hour and a half with a question and answer section afterwards. Informational meetings took place all throughout the summer for the parents and that showed how well the chaperons showed their communication skills. They made sure all the parents knew what they were signing their kids up for, why it was so expensive, where to drop them off, all the specifics. They even made the kids come so we could mentally prepare our self for the exhaustive summer ahead. When we went to band camp for a week, I was shown organization, as the camp counselors had us all separated into our own rooms, we all had a schedule for section rehearsal times and group rehearsal times, they even scheduled free time! I knew that was a skill that I would need later in life, so I always took note of their high level of organization. Lastly, a high level of commitment was taught to me through this experience. There was several days we would march around neighborhoods in our uniforms in the blazing hot sun, practicing for hours cause that’s what it takes. There have been times where practice has run thirty minutes late because we individually had to show we had our parts together to come together. This experience as a whole showed me how to successfully work together in a team (when working with just people who played my instrument) and I was taught all of these characteristics that will still be effective in the business world today.
Successful teams 