The First Goodbye...

Well, I've done it. The first goodbye.

My last colorguard practice was this afternoon. It was muddy and mucky, and everyone kept falling and getting their shoes stuck in the mud. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to be able to wear my shoes again. We'll see.

The last practice, of course, came with lots of twists and turns. It was the first full guard practice I'd run by myself. Thank God I had Lesley (one of the other band directors/former color guard girl) to help me, or I would have died. Mrs. Wigginton (THE guard instructor) briefed me about ten minutes before practice on what needed to happen and then had to leave to run the 8th grade band at the 8th grade football game (bring back memories, anyone?). Unfortunately for me, Mr. Wigginton (THE BAND director) had other plans. He had a whole new set of sets for the guard that he had handwritten on a drill sheet (a piece of paper that tells you where everybody on the field is supposed to stand). And I was supposed to make that happen. (By magic, of course... I mean, what else do you use in a situation like this?)

Somehow (magic!), Lesley and I managed to pull it off, while got our feet completely disgusting in the process, and I pulled the guard together for our post-practice announcement session. I made my announcements, and was getting ready to dismiss everyone when the guard captain told me to hang on for a second. The guard captain is a wonderful girl named Kayla who was a freshmen on my guardline my senior year. She's the only one of the girls who was actually on MY guard, and I've gotten to watch her grow up to take my spot as head captain. That, in itself, is very emotional for me, and I'm so sad to be missing the rest of her senior year. But she asked me to hang on a second, and then pulled out this vanilla envelope. In it, she explained, were personal notes from each of the girls. I smiled and thanked her, and managed to keep my voice steady as I told everyone how much I appreciated the notes, and how much I was going to miss everyone.

I just finished reading the notes... all 28 of them. Some, of course, were "Hey, Devon --We'll miss you!!", and that was fine. I didn't bond with all 28 or anything crazy like that, but some of the others... well, let's just say I cried. A lot. I've got letters from girls I just met in June, and whose names I didn't know until August, and I had no idea that I had touched their lives, or that they even cared I was going away. I had no idea that the effect something I thought was so small was actually so big.

I was very moved, and incredibly touched.

I don't know how all you adventurers did it... saying all those goodbyes. It was easy when I wasn't the one leaving, but now it's so hard.

My birthday is tomorrow, and with that comes my last weekend in Birmingham, which includes what is potentially the last time I'll see David before New Year's. I'm not ready to say goodbye.

Counting down... 12 days, more than 12 goodbyes...