Witnessing Greatness

I couldn’t believe it, another Saturday wasted because I had to go to an intense 1:00-5:00 band practice for the D.C. trip. I was starting to wonder if all these practices and rehearsals were really worth the experience. Sometimes after school I had to go to the band room for a music session. I have to admit, I didn’t want to go at first, but my mom signed me up anyway and told me that I should go because it was an experience of a lifetime. I knew that I’d probably regret not going so I went to all the practices. Our last practice was at Barbara’s Point and it stormed, but we kept marching, I think that gave us a little more confidence that we could march through the inauguration with no problem.
January 16th was here and that meant that we were departing on our big adventure to D.C. It took forever to get there and by the 3rd flight, everyone was way too excited to sleep on the flight over. We were all extremely tired, but our anxiousness got the best of us. I couldn’t believe how cold it was. The feeling was indescribable as me and my roommates, Mikaela, Colby, and Lindsey, and I stepped off the plane. We knew we were really here. It was such an honor. We were tired from the plane ride, but we couldn’t sleep due to our excitement and some jetlag. Unfortunately, the next day we had a practice at one of the parks. Everyone bundled in four or five layers of clothes, gloves, hats, and scarves, anything to keep the warm air in. I particularly was not a fan of the below 20˚ temperature, but I knew that it wasn’t going to get any warmer like in Hawaii so I had to suck it up. While we were rehearsing our music, I couldn’t play. My lips were to frozen and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably. I didn’t know how I was going to get past the parade.
To get our minds off of the parade and the crazy temperatures, they drove us by a few monuments. It was way to cold too walking to them so we all boarded the bus instead. Everywhere we went was beautiful. We went to the capital in the morning and had a short tour and then we visited the other monuments at night because they looked so much better when they glow in the surrounding darkness. I was amazed when we went to the Arlington cemetery. So many miles of grass filled with graves of those who fought for there rights. Every grave is in line because it shows that they were discipline in the army.
Our last rehearsal was almost done. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as cold as it was previous days. There was even a slight snowfall. The practice was just like in Hawaii, only with out the 80˚ weather. We went around and around the track and played all of our tunes. I felt pretty confident after the practice. After marching, we gathered together to take a group picture. Something strange happened as we sat together as a group to pose for a picture. It made me feel that we were ready. We were going to represent Punahou well.
Finally it was January 20th. It was the day of the parade. It was 4:15 in the morning and I wasn’t very excited to get up this early, but if finally sunk in parade day and I thought to myself, “All the work we’ve done will finally pay off today.” Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that standing in the cold for five or six hours was part of the deal. But, to keep us warm, everyone huddled together like penguins and that helped, a little. Finally, the parade was about to begin. I couldn’t believe it, I was about to witness greatness. We began to march and everything went away. All my excitement, my fears, everything, I just couldn’t wait to pass the Punahou grad that’s now our President and present ourselves well. It was truly inspiring to know that President Obama came from a small rock in the ocean. He work hard and dreamed big, and he got his dream come true fantasy, President of the United States. I feel like if I try as hard as he did and dream as big as him and follow my dreams, I could accomplish anything. As we marched passed President Obama I frantically searched for him, knowing that we weren’t supposed to look around when you’re in “attention” but I had to try. I didn’t find him though and I was quite disappointed. Even though I didn’t see him, I could feel his glowing smile and excitement as we marched past the window where he stood with his family. But, I knew that it was worth the journey as we passed him playing Aloha Oe. All over the news they had stories about the Punahou band and Obama smiling and giving us the shaka. It really made me feel proud of everyone. I was so grateful that we were able to have the opportunity to experience this amazing journey. My mom was right after all.
All that was left was to enjoy the rest of the trip. Lucky for us, we got a dinner at the ESPN zone. Everyone was extremely tired at the end of the day and just wanted to go back to the hotel and crash. This practices and trip was tiring and difficult, but overall I’m really glade I went. This experience was extremely inspirational to me and was extremely life changing.