The day I almost joined the band

Sixth Grade

My first few weeks of middle school

Looking back, I think everyone must have felt a little awkward and out of place at that stage in their life.

Hormones, mood swings, growth spurts, acne, etc.

I was one of those kids that grew out before I grew up.

So i was robustly round throughout most of middle school.

Everything was round

I had some huge chubby cheeks, a belly, and I shopped for jeans said husky on the tag

My mother told me they were for strong boys

I bought it

A few weeks into middle school, after all the smelly kids came back from the gym

They would have people come talk to us each day about opportunities we would have

Some were completely lame and could be easily shrugged off

Some peppy 8th grade girl would come in and talk about the great opportunity we all had to do community service by raking leaves and picking up trash in the parking lots.

Others were clubs and crap like that

But then one day the band guy came in.

And he was a salesman, a good one.

He made the magnificent world of music sound so appealing.

I had never ever thought about playing a musical instrument

Spent most of my life in athletic events, but like I said I was growing out, not up.

I was a couple years younger than most of the guys in my grade

A lot of them were ahead of me physically and athletically

And the band teacher made my slight overbite sound like it was destiny for me to play alto sax

There I was sitting uncomfortably in a desk that was too small with my belly smashed against the front of the desk and my husky jeans tight around my quads but loose at the hips because I refused to wear belts

And I couldn't help but think

"WHAAT?? ME!?!?!? Playing alto sax!... Wow I could be a star"

I was so excited and couldn't wait to get home to buy my alto sax

Had Ebay been around in those days, I might have bought it that night.

I told my Mom how excited I was to play it on the way home.

She was supportive.

And then I went to sleep that night just thinking about wearing a band uniform, playing the alto sax and rocking out.

Then I went to sleep, woke up, chuckled to myself how I almost fell into the hands of the salesman and never thought about the alto sax again