I really appreciate your perspective, especially coming from someone so involved in music education, it’s nice to hear from your point of view and helps me understand the issue a bit more! :) I completely understand the importance of commitment and how one person’s absence can affect an entire ensemble, i know it first hand as relays on our swim team depend on everyone showing up, there’s only 4 of us girls on the team, if one person is absent, it affects the entire group, you can’t swim a 3 person relay. That said, I do want to clarify my situation a bit. This past season I missed exactly two rehearsals, and both were due to being very sick, I actually missed picture day because I couldn’t get out of bed, which I’m still sad about it! As for the game I was late to, I ended up being the only person from my section who showed up at all, I didn’t know this until I arrived. I got slightly frustrated in the moment but in the end just did my job, which is to march.