After trying my hardest for 2 years, I finally became the first girl in my high school marching band to make the drumline in...a long time. They put me on the bass drum, which was half the size of me and weighed a ton, but what did I care? I made it.
Many of the boys had been on the drumline for their entire high school career and were very closely bonded. A feminine presence completely threw them for a loop and it was fun for a second to watch them try to adapt to the change.
The music was given to us and we went to work...as soon as the boys stopped the game of drum head Frisbee they were so diligently playing. I studied the music as they dove over the auditorium seats and realized that the marching bass was a lot different than the concert bass. Willing to give it a try, and hoping my ability to count to 4 would not leave me, I went and stood behind my bass drum, introducing myself and hoping it would be a compatible relationship. The boys soon got bored, as they always did, and came up to join me.
After warm-ups, we began to focus on the music (and by focus, I mean play two measures, take a break, and play another two). When we actually did play, they treated me like I had never seem a drum or a music note before. It was rather demeaning, but after I just played it, they left me alone, with a look mixed with surprise and embarrassment.
Because of the years the boys spent together, they had a particular way of communicating with each other when mistakes were made, or when something was actually played right. Vulgar words and gestures would often escape their lips and bodies and make their way through the line, and inside jokes were often told. The brotherhood between the boys was something I was not used to. I had been around boys like them long enough to know what behavior to expect, but I was not prepared to witness the brother-from-another-mother atmosphere that had been created.
Half way through the swearing and gesturing, I guess my invisibility cloak fell off because they noticed I was there and rapidly started apologizing for their behavior. This was another thing I was not used to either. I had always been 'one of the boys' because my love for technical theater, archery, and rock climbing usually attracted the male demographic. I was unprepared for the apology and didn't quite know what to say. A shrug of my shoulders was all I could do and we went, all with red, embarrassed faces, back to the drums to avoid the awkward moment.
Looks like we all have adapting to do!
