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by Tom Merrill
The truth is, I was ready to go home after the first day.
It was June, 1982. I was in Whitewater, WI, for the Marching Bands of America Summer Camp, in preparation for my first year as drum major of my high school band.
I had just survived my first day of the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy - and didn't have an entirely positive opinion of this tyrant whose red hair and beard made it look like his head was constantly on fire.
My legs hurt from eight hours of seemingly pointless marching basics, my arms hurt from learning and repeating my first conducting patterns over and over, my head hurt from being crammed full of "star thoughts" all day long, I was wet from the mid-afternoon rain, and I had some kind of Wisconsin bug bite that was beginning to swell above my right eyebrow.
I was ready to go home.
Thank goodness I didn't. Because, although I didn't realize it at the time, these were the first steps in my positively life changing experience.
As the week continued on, something began to take hold, and my mindset began to change.
It may have been my first experience in a Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser session, laughing and crying and learning at the same time.
It may have been my first chance to see a drum corps or winter guard or BOA marching bands, and seeing the level of excellence that was attainable.
It may have been the level of energy and service above self that I witnessed from these strange people who ran around with the word "SWAG" on the back of their T-shirts.
It may have been a combination of all of that.
Whatever it was, I started to "get it" - that there was more to leadership than wearing the white uniform and standing on the podium in front of the band.
The fall season followed, with a new appreciation of this odd activity called marching band, a sense of drive and dedication to excellence I had never really felt before, and challenges that would test the leadership that had been sparked within me that summer.
The plans to return to Whitewater the following summer were derailed, but for good reason - our band was representing Iowa in the National Independence Day Parade, and traveling to Washington, D.C., for what was to be my first band trip and, again without realization, a positively life-changing experience.
The senior year that followed led to thoughts of going to college to study to be a music teacher - thoughts that eventually were sidelined in favor of pursuing what had been my first intention of aeronautical engineering, a career that most certainly would provide more stability and security for my future.
A pursuit that scarcely lasted a year into college.
It was 1985, and at the suggestion of Shari McAllister, a newfound friend in the South Dakota State University Marching Band who herself had been a member of the SWAG team, I applied for a position on the team that summer and to my amazement was selected to join.
This was to be my first test of the waters to see if I thought I could succeed as a band director, and this test quickly became the best on-the-job training I would ever have.
For five consecutive summers, this became my annual "reality check" that put into practice what I was studying the other 51 weeks of the year.
This is where I learned what couldn't be learned academically.
The best lessons I ever had on teamwork were developed here - this was where I saw in practice what could be accomplished if no one worried about who got the credit.
The old "V-SWAG" designation had been done away with to help unify the team (although you could still tell who the vets were - they were the ones who got to drive the Cushman golf carts or carry the all-important "bag phone").
The SWAG motto "Live to Give" taught me the value of serving others, and the entire experience taught me more about kids and teaching than I got in multiple semesters worth of education classes.
These were some of the most intense weeks of my life both physically and emotionally, helping me really learn what I was capable of accomplishing and instilling the qualities that would allow me to succeed in life.
Perhaps most important were the people that helped shape the spirit of the team and became examples and mentors that would influence my life in fantastic ways.
From the early morning meetings over the infamous Whitewater donuts to the late night recaps over Rocky Rococo pizza, people like Scott McCormick, Charlie Menghini, Lisa Preston, L.J. Hancock, Michael Kumer and Dr. Tim helped the team develop focus and direction—and taught me much about myself along the way.
As the 1980s and my undergraduate years drew to a close, I started attending the camp as a band director—as a "grown up" experiencing the camp from a whole new perspective.
This felt sort of like going back to your high school after you graduated - you knew most of the faces and places, but somehow you were an outsider now and it didn't feel quite the same.
Welcoming, but at the same time realizing you had crossed a threshold and couldn't really go back.
Soon the camp itself would outgrow the UW campus and move to Illinois State University.
In 1992, ten short years but a lifetime since that first day as a camper, I was in my fourth year of teaching high school band in Iowa.
Lisa Preston of the SWAG team was teaching in Normal, Illinois, and spending one week each summer teaching and designing my color guard.
She knew I wanted to pursue a graduate degree (and that I was eager to get out of the little town where I lived) and suggested I apply for the graduate assistant position at the Illinois State University band department that was about to be vacated by fellow SWAG Amy Johnson.
(When I asked Amy what being a TA was like, her answer was short and simple: "It's like SWAGGING every day of your life.")
After a June trip with my band to Washington, D.C. - bringing "full circle" to my own high school experience ten years previous - my duties began, working in tandem with the ISU Bands and the SWAG team for the Summer Symposium.
A number of the SWAGS were also ISU music students, so it was a wonderful opportunity to meet and get to know people with whom I would be spending a great deal of time in the fall.
One in particular was a junior flute performance major from Chicago named Jennifer Torbeck.
Despite our city girl/country boy backgrounds, we seemed to share similar interests and a sense of humor.
That first fall we loaded up two vans of ISU music education students to drive to Indianapolis for the weekend to assist Butler University students with the Bands of America Regional.
I saw it as an opportunity to recruit ISU students into the SWAG team so that they could experience what I had over the years.
In the passenger seat next to me for most of the trip was Jennifer.
At the Hoosier Dome she pulled outdoor bus parking duty in the rain and cold while I was inside the main assembly hall sending bands through the airlock, so I took it upon myself to bring her a hot cup of coffee every now and then during the day.
This is what band geek courtship looks like.
Soon, we were dating.
And yet another positively life changing experience.
At the Midwest Clinic in 1994, on the night of the Marine Band concert and with the skyline of her beloved Chicago as a backdrop, I finally proposed to Jennifer.
As we arrived at the Hilton Towers that night, the first person we recognized in the crowded lobby and broke the news to was none other than Dr. Tim - who responded with the type of excitement that usually comes from a favorite uncle.
The summers that followed included Summer Symposium, our wedding, attending Summer Symposium again as a married couple (yes, that was different...) and a move to Colorado.
In 1998, my final year attending Symposium, I brought students with me from Colorado - again bringing my experience "full circle" over the span of 16 years.
I soon left teaching to join the staff of New Horizons Tour and Travel as a sales manager, planning tours and creating memories of a lifetime for high school music groups in the same way they had done for my students when I took them to Washington, D.C.
This would eventually lead to another "full circle" moment when New Horizons became a Preferred Travel Partner to Bands of America, allowing me to work with ensembles attending Bands of America and Music for All events and helping them create their own positively life-changing experiences.
As I look back (and look forward) I realize how truly fortunate I have been to have encountered the incredible people and memorable experiences that have touched my life over the years - whether attending a clinic, sharing time over lunch, setting up for a session, sitting in on a rehearsal, driving them to the airport, designing a tour...or bringing them a cup of coffee while they park buses.
To paraphrase Walt Disney, "I hope to never lose sight of one thing...that it all started with a band camp."
And I thank my lucky stars that I didn't go home after the first day.
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