This year marked one filled with many firsts for me... In addition to my wife and I welcoming the arrival of our first child and enjoying all the new things that come along with raising a little boy; we both saw our 30 adopted percussionist children take the jump into the world of WGI Percussion.
While significantly less life altering, I cannot express the joy and excitement of watching as they became the first ever Open class unit from Maryland to compete in any WGI sanctioned event. Not only did they compete, they made Finals competing against teams that were previous Open Class Finalist at WGI Championships. To put it plainly, their success was affirmation of the years of effort made by the membership to be intrinsically motivated students and performers.
As an educator, it was humbling to see a program mature in front of my eyes in the brief 5:45 of floor time. They were poetic professionals who absolutely performed with no fear. As such, they were rewarded with a second run. As a designer, to have my design evaluated by Ike Jackson was also something of a dream. The 5 minutes we had with him were among the most eye opening in my life.
We're always chasing firsts. Whether it's the first of a specific life experience or even the ranking placement; it's a natural human feeling that we search out. We're a slave to the dopamine fix we get from meeting those goals. And the wonderful thing about life in general is no matter how long you've done anything, those firsts still seem to show up. Good and bad. And while I've been a part of many great staffs and programs over the years, season 27 will remain at the top of the heap for a long time... in part, due to the reminder to take in those small "Firsts" as the real achievements. A season filled with first: WGI Regional, Open Class, Philosophy Changes, and a Circuit Championship in Open Class.
This activity has given me literally everything I have in my life. My career, my wife, and now my son. And that all started with my "first" (8:5) step.
Here's to 27 more seasons of firsts.