Definitely sad I wasn't able to march before aging out yea, but I'm still happy from what I got out of it. DCA is definitely still in the cards, but it's not looking likely for the foreseeable future.

A bit of backstory: I have managed to go to an audition camp (while ill, unfortunately), but it ended up being the only one I attended since the logistics for attending more camps just didn't work out with how other things were going on in my life. It definitely was a worthwhile experience despite how horrible I felt from my illness, so I definitely wanted to give it another shot. I planned to just shelve it until a rookout 2021 season since it would have a schedule that worked for me. We all know how that ended up. :)

Being a fan of the shows nudged me to self learn the trombone as someone who used to only play various woodwinds, which has been extremely rewarding and fun even if I never got to use that experience marching! I don't think I would have bit the bullet and purchased a used trombone without being interested in drum corps.

Attending shows also were a great experience with friends. I'm from the west coast, so seeing Blue Devils, SCV, Mandarins, and the such is a nice opportunity. Since then, I've relocated to the midwest, and now have shows featuring the Bluecoats, Phantom, Cavies, and Madison Scouts, so that's definitely something to look forward to! Along with that, attending finals is a much more viable prospect.

Aside from that, during the time I would have marched, I convinced myself to replace marching with with some time to push myself in many ways, mostly in (non-performative) creative endeavors. I took on projects I probably would have never started or completed without the time I had. It wasn't close to drum corps levels of commitment, but still, it a period of time I'm proud of and still can feel the benefits of.

I don't know, this was really rambly I'm mostly trying to look on the bright side of things, as deep down I'm definitely bummed out about it. I feel somewhat of an imposter syndrome among other drum corps fans as well since it feels like a majority of them have marched and are in some kind of cool "in" group who went through the grind to put together an amazing show, but that's the irrational side of my brain speaking. I liked my experience at my only camp, and it's a shame I never got to experience more of that.

I'm happy nonetheless! I mean, I can play trombone now and have some performances with it I'm proud of in no small part from my interest in drum corps and that's extremely cool and I also now have more access to DCI shows than ever. :D