a personal narrative by Kaitlyn N.
It all started two years ago when I was in grade 10. Kristie, David, and myself were all in music class together, that’s when David started talking about the things they were doing in band. As Kristie and I started listening to him, we started getting interested in it. Kristie said, “We should join band.” I replied, “Yeah. It sounds like it might be fun.” So we decided that we were going to join. Band had already started for that year so we had to work hard at trying to learn all the songs. But all the hard work paid off and we were part of the band for the final few months of grade 10.
Last year when the band was starting up again, I signed up to join. We all practiced really hard because the band goes to Kingsville to participate in the Music Fest Regionals. Music Fest Regionals is where all the local school bands go to play in front of three judges who give them a ranking within a certain category of which the group applied for. At Regionals that year, we received a silver place award which allowed us to go to Music Fest Nationals, which was being held in Ottawa. Music Fest Nationals is where the gold and silver placed bands from all around Canada come together and play for three judges. We all started fund-raising and doing concerts for the community to help pay for the cost of the trip.
When it came time to go for the trip to Ottawa, everyone was very excited. We all boarded the bus at about 5:00 a.m. and we were to arrive in Ottawa around 1:00 p.m.. When we got there, we went to our hotel and got settled in then went out for dinner and a little shopping around the city. But we were to be in early because we were scheduled to play at 7:00 a.m. for the judges at the Nationals.
When we got to the building that the Nationals were being held, we were to get step up and practice while we waited for the judges to call us in. I can remember how nervous I felt when they finally called us. Once we were done playing for them, we went into this other room where we waited for one of the judges to come and tell us how we did. He told us that, “We had received a silver medal for the category of concert band.” We were all excited about the good news and we even got to work with the judge on some of the songs that needed a little more work. Then he said, “Now you are all going to receive a new piece of music and you will be judged on how well you all can sight read it. You can only play it once together, then the second time you will be judged.” This made everyone nervous, but Mrs. Morosin helped us clap out the rhythm and we ended up receiving a gold medal for it. In receiving a gold medal, we were given an automatic invite to go back to the Nationals the following year; 
however, this year we are going to go to Chicago to participate in the Heritage Festival that is being held there.
After our performance, we took the bus back to our hotel where we got everything we needed for the day. Over the next three days, we visited many different places. Some of the places included: Quebec for a whole day, the Civil War Museum, and the Parliament Building. We also took a bus tour around the city, saw a film at the Imax theatre, watched music performances by different orchestras, and shopped at the Redoux Centre and around the streets of Ottawa.
At night, when we were back at the hotel, we had two hours to do whatever we wanted before our doors were taped shut. I shared a room with Kristie and Rachel. Kristie brought her iPod speakers and we all brought a lot of candy, so we could stay up late into the night and listen to music and eat candy. But before we had to go into our rooms, everyone visited other rooms. Everyone was watching TV, playing games, eating candy, listening to music, playing video games or on the laptop that someone had brought, or they were giving each other facials.
We made one final stop on our way back home: the Hershey Factory. We all got to go on a tour around the factory and then after we got to buy any Hershey products that we wanted to. For the whole bus ride home, everyone was full of energy and excitement from the trip.
This was the best school trip that I have ever been on and hopefully this year when we go to Chicago, it will be equally as fun as Ottawa was. Also, by getting involved in the school band, it allowed me to meet many new people that I probably would have never met. This just goes to show you that by getting involved in school activities you can meet new people and have some of the best experiences of your life.
