Well, as you already know, I spent this summer sweating my life away in the sun, or on a bus touring the country and competing. I wouldn't have changed it for anything though. I had a really great time, surprisingly, even on the long bus rides which ranged from about 7 hours through the night, to a 13 hour ride throughout a day and part of a night, to the 35 hour bus ride all the way back from Madison, WI. Luckily my bus buddy was good about letting me sleep in twisted positions and probably drooling on him a little. We did win the title of DCI World Champions of Division 2, which was very exciting. My friend Michelle, the drum majors, and myself were all front and center to do the salute when it was announced that we won, which was a very exciting moment. (These pictures are action shots of myself performing during finals, and the DMs and Michelle and I holding the champions banner).
DCI also honors the age outs with a ceremony the night before finals. This is me with my friend Michelle (again) at the ceremony because we're the 2 age outs from the guard. The ceremony showed all of our names on the big screen in the stadium, and we got pins for our corps jackets and lots of pictures and such. It's also a long-standing tradition to leave your shoes behind on the field, since you will never march again (except the next day at finals). Being confused and definitely knowing we needed our shoes for the next day, Michelle and I left a button and tassel from the side of our uniforms and replaced them for our last show the next day.
This picture below is my bus seat partner Klay and I with our gold medals on the way home. Now that I'm home, it's bittersweet. I'm glad it's over and I'm home and a world champion, but it was definitely one of the greatest times in my life, and I will really miss it.
Besides The Academy owning my soul this summer, I did have a week off, which I spent part of visiting a friend who was interning for the Supreme Court in DC. I am so happy that I was given the opportunity to take that trip, because I have always wanted to go there and see the sights. It was especially good because Laura was a government employee, so even when the tickets for attractions had already been given out for the day, she just had to flash her badge and we scored extra tickets. That's how we got into the Holocaust Museum.
Me touching an actual moon rock in the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space stuff.
We also got tickets to take a White House garden tour, so I got right up to the White House.
We did all the touristy stuff there is to do, including walking all the way down the Mall from the Capitol building down 2 miles to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. We also found time to hit up some local bars, a movie theatre, and of course the local Chipotle.
