A leadership opportunity did not present itself to me until my senior year of high school. The current tuba section leaders in the high school marching band were not present for most of the season, so I took it upon myself to teach the members of my tuba section. I taught them the basics of marching; how to read the music; how to play effectively on a tuba; and how to efficiently apply all of them at the same time —that was the most difficult experience. It was difficult because the members of the section were under confident in themselves, as if they imagined their whole experience of high school to be morbid. They did not feel like they belonged; I had to prove to them that they had a place within the band. For example, during the first week of school, I had to learn one of the section leader’s own movements for the marching show—and instruct one of the freshman that was assigned to be their shadow those same movements. The process was long and difficult, that particular student was getting frustrated and started mouthing insults about the whole process of it all—they were even talking about quitting. I took it upon myself to host private lessons with the entire tuba players—they needed to learn in a setting where they knew they were not going to feel judged. So, during the first week of school, I gathered the section and told them that I will be holding a private practice on Saturday, if they are willing to participate. Saturday finally arrived, and all of the members actually showed up. Now, they arrived at around 8 AM, so I had to choose words carefully because we were all groggy; any phrase that contained a hint of aggravation will prompt them to go home. “Alright guys,” I said, “I need you all to get to your starting set, I need to see how you all are doing with standing at attention at least.” They did terribly, some were not holding the tuba right, actually, the majority of them were collapsing from the tuba’s weight; looking at them reminded me of myself in my freshman year and how I faltered just as much as them, I even frustrated my section leaders with how slow I was. I took a different approach with them, however. I lined them up and we did marching drills for a good two hours—I especially noted their feet placement, posture, and confidence. I noticed that it was the confidence that affected every other
