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Life Lessons Learned


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Many corps advertise "learning life lessons" as part of what they offer.

I was wondering what life lessons have those who marched (Dinos to present day) learned in the corps they marched.

I know I have learned several things that has allowed me to enjoy my life.

I met my wife through my age out corps, 2 of my 3 children marched in real small corps while all 3 enjoy the marching arts activity

I stay really focused on a task. Never give up. Multitasking. Push myself to be better than I am and learning to pay it forward.

No bashing, just lessons learned please.

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I learned humility, compassion, love, brotherhood, patience, to strive to make others day better, to leave places better than I found them when I leave, timeliness, loyalty, etc.

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Interesting question that I don't have the experience to answer. But I enjoy reading others' answers.

An important, somewhat academic, perspective is whether the good habits and skills were likely to have been developed by (at least some) individuals even without having been in a corps. Is the act of committing to a summer or three of drum corps something that self-selects certain kinds of individuals in the first place?

Just an FYI comment. Certainly don't want to diminish the experience, and I'm anxious to read the feedback others provide to the original post.

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Interesting question that I don't have the experience to answer. But I enjoy reading others' answers.

An important, somewhat academic, perspective is whether the good habits and skills were likely to have been developed by (at least some) individuals even without having been in a corps. Is the act of committing to a summer or three of drum corps something that self-selects certain kinds of individuals in the first place?

Just an FYI comment. Certainly don't want to diminish the experience, and I'm anxious to read the feedback others provide to the original post.

That's an interesting point.

It's sort of like the concept of the "Mozart Effect" and playing music for a baby. There are those that argue for it and against it, based on their research, and recently I read an article that questioned whether or not it is more the child being a product of an environment, rather than literally playing classical, primarily Mozart for babies in utero, as well as in very young ages.

I can say for me personally, many of my life lessons I hold most dear came from being involved with drum corps. As for whether or not I would have gotten that in other groups, I can't say because I marched one place, but I can say it was a positive for me, as well as educational.

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The value of travel as the best education. I lived a relatively sheltered life in south Mississippi before drum corps (overprotective religious zealot parents who never did really approve of my drum corps years, but that's a story for another day) and my two years at Phantom Regiment were a coming of age for me. Learning about people that I never would have been able to meet otherwise and seeing the country, albeit via stadiums, gym floors, and football fields, were some of my greater memories. 2017 makes 20 years since I marched, and I still get misty-eyed thinking of the experience.

Now I just have to get my kids to follow suit so I can be a drum corps dad!!!!

Edited by fireshane1
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the ability to move beyond your comfort zone, and be ok with it. to open up to new friends of all backgrounds. to understand that answers to questions can come from anyone in the group. to simply "try it".

to deal with adversity. its hot, you're stuck in bumble stink kansas, the showers don't all work, you've got a clinic to play, and a show to perform tonight. just go to work. make it happen and make it good. that's what its about. push, deal, and overcome. anything less than 100% is unacceptable. Because this is the (insert corps name).

you didn't think you could do it, but you could. which means later in life when you come upon a barrier you don't think you can overcome... you will. because you remember that one time in kansas, when EVERYTHING sucked. And you got through it. You found a way to work as a team, to make it to the show, to make that crowd stand on their feet, and later on, when the bus broke down and you had to pile everyone onto the other busses and trucks and again... EVERYTHING sucked for that time being... you got through it. And you'll remember it, and apply that mentality later on in life.

There's no "I can't do that". There's only "I'll find a way to do that".

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What a great topic/question.

I've thought about this a lot. My $.02 below.

Similar to some of the other responses, I think one of the core values to the drum corps experience is learning that you can push yourself harder than you ever thought you could. And I think that falls under the category of a "life lesson." A really important one. I know any time I look at an existing or upcoming challenge in my life, I think to myself--this can't be as hard as **** from drum corps.

Here's how I see that happening in a unique way for this activity: the competitive aspect puts a weight (you can call it artificial or not) on every choice you make, and every action over the course of a summer. And for most "kids," up until the summer they march, they've never had so much weight put on their actions. So even though it's just marching band, it feels (and IS) SO important. You learn what it feels like to succeed and to fail with (artificially) incredibly high stakes. It feels like life or death, but it's really just band. Which is good, because you can fail, but with a safety net. And if you take a kid who doesn't march corps, most of them won't be put in a situation that feels like the stakes are that high until at least their mid twenties, if not even later than that.

Basically, it gives you a chance to test/prove your mettle in a safe environment, and that helps kids grow up.

I dunno--it made more sense in my head.

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Excellence is a choice. Only focus on what you can control. Tradition for its own sake can be destructive.

Honestly, everything in life boils down to living with Excellence. I learned that from my one season at SCV, 1984. In order of personal impact I'd have to say Charlie Anderson, Rick South, Gail Royer, Tim Salzman, Guy Smith and John Figueira. All preaching Excellence; otherwise what's the point?

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