Sunday September 07, 2008

The Night Before, First Friday, The Game, The Aftermath

Week 2: The Citadel: The Night Before, First Friday, The Game, The Aftermath

by Pigtailedtigerpiccolo®

11 PM 9-4-08

After missing last week’s game due to not being able to find a ticket, I am now faced with the reality that I am an alumna, nevertheless, a Tiger Band alumna. This weekend will mark the first Clemson game I will go to where I will have the choice of what I want to wear. Advantage: me. No heavy band uniform, no dehydration, no losing up to 10 pounds a game. I’m certainly not going to miss the attire. I’m not missing all of the emergency phone calls for small problems, either. But that’s another story. However, when the band takes the field for pre-game, running onto the field, I won’t be with them for that.

I’ll be in the North Upper Deck, Section TDR, Row V, Seat 9, getting the bird’s eye view of the forms. I’ll actually get to see how straight or not straight the lines are. I’ll be able to point to my spot on the very left end of the T (which is now in the end zone because of the large increase in size between this year and last year) and wonder who is filling my shoes. After all, that was my spot for my entire career. I rarely had to give it up to an alternate, and that only happened my first 2 years. I’ll know what the band is feeling, but I won’t be able to turn to the fans around me and explain it. I did pre-game 26 times in 4 years in the valley and to this day cannot explain what it felt like to be on the field as the football team ran down the hill while 80000+ orange-clad fans screamed at the top of their lungs. I know I’m going to miss it. Thank goodness for Alumni Band, but that’s only one game a year and the First Friday Parade, and that one game is only a halftime performance. No pregame.
Reality is setting in.

9:25 PM 9-5-08

It was cool to march the parade today. Early on, I felt like a kid again, but as the route drew on I started to feel OLD and graduated. I shouldn’t be feeling all that old, considering I just graduated in May, but my feet, legs and lungs were telling me otherwise. Sure it is harder to march when you have a head cold, but there were entire weeks of practice that I was sick and I didn’t feel nearly this tired after one short performance. I marched for an hour and quickly reminded myself that my feet might only be 22 years old, but they act like they’re 50. They’re painful and tough to soothe.

Not only did I physically feel old, but seeing all of the “Class of 2012” shirts running around made me feel old, too. Now I realize I’m supposed to be a responsible adult. Pffffff… that’s why I’m a teacher. I’m just delaying growing up. I hope I don’t think to myself how young everyone is each year at First Friday.
After the parade, I got to do something I never got to do before… have a nice drink and not be responsible for providing the pep rally (which was abnormally short this year), and by drink, I’m referring to the kind that adults have. It was nice to amble into the pep rally and hang out with the band. Of course, I got a little dose of reality when they played Tiger Rag and some other songs without me. The pep rally at Riggs was never one of my gigs, but nevertheless it was a gig and I loved performing for Tiger fans. Many of my friends who are still active in the band admitted they missed me, but they also knew it was time for me to move on. Part of me was very ready to move on, but a little part of me will always want to be on that field.
After the band was dismissed, I went over to the other side of Riggs to talk to some friends. During that time, it really hit me. I don’t have band practice tomorrow. I don’t have the 90 minutes before kick-off concert. I’m not marching a parade. Or pre-game. Or half-time. I have free time to hang out with my friends and tailgate, and that’s a whole new world for me. During my band years, especially my senior year, I was lucky to get a meal before a game. I had to be in one place or another at any given time, either taking care of something. I won’t know what to do with myself!

As for tonight… I’m going to relax and head downtown with a few friends, since I don’t have to worry about doing anything tomorrow, except for enjoying Clemson football after graduating. You only experience your first game after graduation once, so my advice is to make it the best experience you can!

9-7-08 12:50 PM

Just because I’ve graduated does not mean game day does not wear me out. Thanks to some wonderful friends
in Easley, I did not drive all the way back to Spartanburg last night. Obviously, I was too tired to write this last night!

Going to the game and not being in the band was a new experience. I could walk around campus, pass through tailgates and no one would recognize me. No one would ask me to play Tiger Rag. Or pose for pictures with their kids and family. Or ask for my autograph. Instead of being one of the most noticeable people at a football outside of the players and the cheerleaders I could pass by most groups unnoticed. Part of me missed the requests, but after last year I knew it was time to move on.

I stopped by band practice on Saturday morning and shed a few tears, because I wasn’t out there with them. Sure I was excited that it was game day, but the excitement wasn’t there when I was with the band, but game day is still my favorite day of the week! As I stood watching them, I thought back to my first game my freshman year and how nervous I was that I was going to screw up pregame and miss my spot in the script Tigers formation. I had a sense of nervousness for this game because sitting anywhere else in the stadium was different than anything I had experienced before. The upper deck was nice and the people around me were great, but I felt a little disconnected from the game and I didn’t feel the same sense of involvement in the game cheering from the upper deck.

The hardest part of the game physically was the heat and all those stairs. Having never been in the upper deck, the stairs seemed much larger than those in the lower bowl. The heat was awful yesterday, but I didn’t miss wearing the heavy band uniform. That was one thing I was certainly looking forward to! Emotionally, the toughest part of the game was watching pregame. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t on the field, or even near it for that matter. Pregame was always my favorite part of the game. The two high points of the pregame show were the script Tigers formation and of course, the running down the hill. Seeing the forms on the field was cool, but I still would have much rather been in my usual spot, at the very left end of the “T” in Tigers. The girl who took that spot told me she thought of me when she realized where she had to go. She’s a nice girl and I hope she NEVER misses that spot. That would break my heart since I had that spot for 4 years and never missed it!

Being able to roam about, visit other tailgates, eat, drink, and be merry was very nice. I never had to worry about getting a call from the band or having to be somewhere at a certain time. I was able to relax and catch up with old friends and other band alumni. I was on my own schedule. No one could tell me where to go or what to do.

I’ll always reflect fondly upon my band days, and when homecoming rolls around, you’ll see me in alumni band. After this adventurous weekend, I’m now okay with my career being over. I have the rest of my life to live, and one game a year to relive my days as a Tiger Band member.
Nice win this week… let’s get another one next week!

GO TIGERS!

Pigtailedtigerpiccolo