“I’ve been a part of band all four years of high school.

I started [band] in sixth grade [at Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School]. It was either band or art, so I chose band.

I joined marching band in high school as a way to continue playing the flute and meet other people. [For band camp], we meet four weeks before school starts. And it’s kind of nice going into every year with this new group of people that you’re friends with. No one really dislikes each other. It’s all pretty friendly and just nice having that extra support group that you spend so much time with.

We compete during football season and [a few days ago], we had our last competition for this season.

Band competitions are usually a full-day event for the judges, with each performance lasting around 10 to 15 minutes. There’s quite a few bands because it’s more than just HISD, it’s Katy, Alief [etc.].

More than what you would expect goes into a band performance. We have morning rehearsals every day for two hours. We also sometimes have Saturday practices and invite clinicians, which means more practice. I usually wake up around 6 a.m. and arrive at like 6:50 a.m. [to practice].

It can be really mentally exhausting because you have to think about every step of the process. You have to think where you’re going next, where the people around you are supposed to be, how to arrange your instrument and also how to incorporate the music into the physical aspect of marching.

In the front ensemble, there are percussion, xylophones, vibraphones. They’re always in the front, but everyone else is kind of just moving around the field. It’s not like you’re in one set position. We kind of all just mix and match.

[For football game performances] we leave the [spectator] stands during the second quarter to start warming up for our show, and then the Belles come out. We play their tune, get in our spots for the show and then [the music] just starts. We usually get eight minutes to perform and [then] get off the field.

In the stands, we play more hype songs, like “All I Do Is Win” and “Seven Nation Army,” and then on the field, we play the same tune every time, one that we’ve been practicing all year.

My favorite part of every football game is putting on face paint and getting ready for every theme.

I have someone else do [my face paint] because I’m not that good at [it]. We’ll be on our bus, and we’ll rotate our seats to get around to the people who have a whole [palette] of face paint. We also recently got hair gel and glitter so you can put glitter in your hair and sometimes we bring bandanas and other theme-appropriate clothing. It boosts our energy and makes it a bit of extra fun for every game. It’s kind of like a bonding moment for everyone.

Being in band for the last four years has really taught me how to persevere, because you spend all these hours under the hot sun practicing, and then you have late nights after games, which are sometimes school nights where you’re getting home at 11 to 11:30 p.m. It kind of just teaches you to keep pushing on no matter how tired you are.”