How Concert Band Changed My Life

Having to walk away from band was one of the hardest choices I had to make thus far in my life. It may not seem like such a crucial decision, but considering that I spent four years dedicated to this club, made most of my friends here, and genuinely loved playing the clarinet; it felt as though I was trapped in a difficult situation that was impossible to escape from. However, there were causes that led to my departure. I made the choice to quit band because I loathed playing in concert band, my parents’ marriage was crumbling before my eyes, and band itself simply became too overwhelming to handle.
While I may have loved band as a whole, concert band was the one aspect of it that I truly despised. Concert band was performed from the six grueling months of December to May and

Yet, somewhere along these lines, band became overwhelming to a point where it lost the joy it use to bring and was instead replaced with exhaustment. During marching season, the band as a whole had practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with football games on Fridays. On all of these days we were required to stay after school until practice was over, which usually lasted until 8 pm with the Friday football game ending at 11 pm. Consequently, this schedule definitely limited the amount of time I was able to study for classes at school. And this fact was reflected in my report card, where it was revealed I had unfinished classwork assignments, missing homework packets, and dangerously low test scores. I soon realized that I was prioritizing a club over six classes that actually had an effect over my grade. Not only that, but my whole life was slowly starting to revolve around band, I was either practicing the songs my clarinet, rehearsing with the rest of the band members, or performing in front of an audience. No matter how much I loved being in band, I knew that I couldn’t live like this any