Band has given me some of my most enduring friendships and carried me through my darkest hours. It’s my safe haven, and is a place of escape from all the exhausting, crushing forces in my everyday life. 

Concert band has given me an appreciation of music from both an aesthetic and intellectual standpoint through the practice of beautiful literature. Marching band has instilled in me the value of hard work through repeated practice, dedication, perseverance— it motivates me to challenge my physical boundaries for the first time in my life. Even when it was difficult, I still showed up for the band to contribute my part, to play music I love and be with the family I love. 

Both aspects of the band program are endlessly exciting and thrilling... and the band is like a family, comforting in ways you could never understand if you haven’t experienced it. 

I just can’t understand why Harford County thinks that they should restrict long time players and expel them from their own high school band. It’s easy to bar students when you’re not the one being deprived of one of your greatest sources of happiness. To have given so much to my band, to have forged such strong bonds and to be so dedicated to this family, only to be ripped away by outside forces who know nothing about Edgewood and our identity as a band... that is unforgivable.