Phantom Raider

This is a reasonable concern about your son. I was in the colorguard and the youngest member of a world class finalist corps when I was 14 and it worked out well for me. I was indeed exposed to some language and behavior that I was a bit young to see. The challenges of being the youngest in the corps and the skills that it provides though, will likely serve him for the rest of his life. I am now an ER doc and the first in my family to do so. If it weren't for so many of those hot days when I thought I couldn't go on, I would have given up on my dream a long time ago when things got hard. If you are worried that it will be hard for him, that's a good thing! He'll be better for it! That's the greatest part of DCI. It will give him memories that he will cherish for the rest of his life. The smell of the freshly cut grass, the crisp sound of the crack of a snare drum in the summer night air. These are the memories I draw upon on my hardest days. If you are worried about the cultural aspect of spending a lot of time with young men and women who are 4-7 years older than him, you'll have to gauge how your son might handle that. If the corps didn't think he could do it, they wouldn't have offered him a spot.