The Journey Begins!

The season officially begins this weekend! I know we have been getting together and rehearsing in the winter, learning the music and getting it under our fingers and all the wonderful fun stuff. This year went by particularly fast, but we can attribute that to a shorter indoor season then usual. Because of monetary issues we were forced to do a an abbreviated version of our normal winter season, taking as much as 1 month off in between camps. Fortunately for us it worked out. I haven’t been part of a group with that much professionalism that it could take a month off and then come out and make progress from where we had left off. It really is a great feeling.

This is my 5th year with the corps, and only the 2nd time in these 5 years that I have been satisfied with where we are after the indoor season. Everyone, members and staff alike seems to have come to each camp more prepared then ever. This is what I have come to love about this organization, the professionalism, the preparedness, the focus, and the goals that we have set for ourselves. They are quite lofty and I feel we are right on track. We were on the same path back in 2002, which was a very special year for this corps. This year however I don’t feel that complacency will set in as it did back in ’02. Complacency was that corps biggest weakness. We worked for everything all the way through about mid July then we put it on cruise control for the final stretch. I feel this year that the hunger and the drive will not let us do that.

The goal is not to win. The goal is perfection, or as close to perfection as you can get. It is not easy to achieve perfection. In fact no one in our activity has ever achieved this goal. The goal is not to be the best, but to be the best ever. Will we achieve this goal of perfection? History and human nature point to no. This is the highest goal you can set for yourself. If you come up short it’s ok. No one person or one group has ever achieved true perfection. It is the journey towards this ideal that counts though, not the end result. We will all know just how close we can get in September!

This weekend the real journey begins. The past 4 months has been all preparation for this moment. Something amazing is happening in Syracuse this year! You can just feel it!