Band Room

Confused. It was second semester of my freshman year and my band director, Mr. Barnum, told me to inform the rest of the color guard to come early to school and meet in the band room. There was no explanation. We came in the next morning to a table stacked with boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts. We looked inside the room and there were large tables set up in the front near the white board. We were confused. People made guesses on why we were called in: “Maybe Mr. Barnum and his wife are pregnant again,” “Maybe Mr. Barnum is leaving Prospect.” I nodded apathetically knowing that these were not valid explanations. After about 15 minutes, we were finally able to walk in the room and be seated. As we looked at the people seated at the large tables, we noticed they were administrators, mayors, and unrecognizable faces. We soon realized this wasn’t something small and personal, and the excitement started to build. We were handed containers of confetti and were told not to throw them until told to do so; then a speaker walked up to the podium. No one had any clue who he was, until he started speaking. He explained how he was traveling the country to different high schools to announce the big news and his starting point was New York. I turned to my friend, and with smiles and laughs of excitement we whispered to each other “Macy’s!” Before we knew it, the unknown speaker had announced that we were going to be marching in the 2017 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. There were screams and smiles and hugs. You could feel the confusion leave the room and all that was left was excitement. We then tossed the confetti in the air for a picture perfect moment, and listened to our teachers, administrators, and mayors exclaim how proud they were of us. Out of all the rooms at Prospect, the band room brings back so many memories and emotions, and this morning was the most memorable.