This is what they do not tell you before drum corps:
My boyfriend. My best friend. The one I had no clue how far our 'friendship' would actually go, the one-third of the three musketeers, the one I was way off on who he actually was, the one that finally understood me when so many didn't, as did I for him, my bed wars buddy, water jug partner, and seat partner, not to mention the countless times we had to share toothpaste, if you have no knowledge of drum corps, then you are probably freaking out right now.
If you have any knowledge about drum corps, you know everyone says you never forget your seat partners, (I definitely do not forget Theresa from '15), but no one told me that it was possible to fall in love with your seat partner, although I think we both knew it before we even decided to sit with each other for 84 days straight.
I had decided to fill a spot at my home corp, Music city from Nashville, TN, a place I thought I would have never had the opportunity to march at again. It just was not possible, it was not supposed to happen, I had no time for it.
It was not supposed to work with my life at that point, but yet somehow, for some reason, everything fell into place and within five days I had agreed to fill the spot and was on my way to Smyrna, Tennessee. I got there around 2 o'clock that day and immediately fell into place racing to learn the show, as my fear was always looking stupid and like I didn't know what I was doing.
If you knew me in Music City's 2015 corp, I was not who I was in 2017. By a long shot. I was still in Highschool, still new to leaving the great ole state of Mississippi, and new to being forced to make friends with everyone around me, so needless to say I was not the most social person in 2015, but in 2017, my special friend Gabi sort of forced me to. It was easier, seeing as I had already spent an entire year at college. It made me more outgoing and I was more willing to talk to people I had never met. She introduced me to a lot of new faces I hadn't ever seen, or even remembered from 2015, one of them being a boy from Kentucky.
When we first met, I immediately felt this feeling I had never felt before which scared me, so naturally, I ignored it which meant ignoring him (friend zoning him?). He was impeccably hilarious and we both had the same personalities. It was a win-win situation, but because of some past things, I did not want to get my hopes up on this one. I did not want to 'fall' for something fake. In drum corps, you really and honestly cannot tell when anything is real. Does this person really like me? Is it really Tuesday? Have we really gone 2 weeks without laundry? Are they really feeding us steak? I was so outgoing and had begun to make so many friends that I thought it would be easy peasy to ignore the feeling from him. For a couple days, he will even tell you, I literally ran away from him, ahhh at least we have fun memories to look back on.
The day it all changed, was the first laundry day the corp received, he had offered to do mine and Gabi's laundry because the guard was going last and my Gabi was afraid we wouldn't have time to do all of it. Then when we finally did arrive at the laundry mat, he invited me to eat bdubs with him and some of his friends, so I said yes and Gabi and I walked 20 minutes to go eat with this boy. In my mind I am thinking, what am I doing? Why am I walking 20 minutes to go eat with someone I am trying to avoid? But with all of this running through my mind, my legs continued to carry me there.
When we arrived we sat down, me by him of course, and that is when I realized that the entire time everyone was talking and laughing and carrying on, me and Matthew (that's his name by the way if you weren't informed :)) were having our own complete conversation, the entire night. I lay down that night realizing there was no ignoring it and that even if he stayed a best friend, I completely enjoyed the fact that we shared so many similarities and he got what I was saying and we both nerded out about the same things. That is all I thought it would amount to, was best friends, boy was I wrong. If you know us, then you know we are still going strong for about 6 months now. I've known this boy for 6 months now, and I am completely head over heels, for someone I tried to run away from at first.
I want to thank him for always catching up with me the more I ran because the running did not completely stop that night. So...
Thank you, thank you for keeping pace with me, for stepping back and always thinking of another plan when the one before didn't get the response you wanted. Thank you for always being up for a late night talk before lights out. Thank you for the countless adventures after shows, on free days, and laundry days. Thank you for evening out my ankle cuffs on my leggings because it drove you crazy, thank you for allowing me to peel your sunburned nose when Sarah told you it was really bad and you needed someone to peel it, thank you for giving me your jacket when I realized I felt lonely without you, because in that moment I knew I had found my other half, and it is impossible to feel whole when you realize that half has been gone. Thank you for filling my water jug up in the morning while I was unloading the truck, and on that note, thank you for waiting on me and also helping me load the truck after shows because it would take us so long. Thank you for the adorable sticky notes you left me, thank you for allowing me to do your show hair and makeup, thank you for creating a tradition of listening to music on the ride to the show site and sharing the love of prince with me. Thank you for taking me to my first steak and shake, thank you for letting me take countless pictures of you, thank you for taking me to cute little shops and showing me the wonders of new cities, thank you for your countless reassurance when I wasn't sure how this would work out side of the fake reality that is drum corps, thank you for driving 5 hours to see me at least once a month and never getting tired (or so you say) and always being positive of it, and lastly, thank you for making me feel worth the distance when my biggest fear of beginning our relationship in the first place was that I was not worth the amount of work/gas/money it would take to see each other because when we are finally together again each time we always forget that we were even apart in the first place, and that to me is what should matter. Thank you, seat partner.
I love you and no one told me I would.
Love,
1/3 of the three musketeers
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