Music and Gender

 Before I came to Converse, I attended two separate high schools. The first was Cane Bay, where I met most of my friends, and the second was Berkeley Middle College, where the class size was significantly smaller, but the academics were more challenging to prepare me for college. When I was at Cane Bay, there were people from all over South Carolina that I hadn't met before because I was homeschooled. The environment was a lot more diverse, and I made many friends from all over the world and from different backgrounds that I hadn't experienced in my upbringing. When I was at Cane Bay High School, I was in the jazz band, and I played guitar and trumpet there. We performed at multiple musical events and achieved a few different Awards, but it was about something other than the competition for me. It was always about the people and the music. One of the more notable people was my friend Sally. She played the trumpet just like I did. She was always energetic and Lively and performed better than I did. We would play together in the jazz band, and I always knew we were disconnected because she was highly competitive in the music. She would try out for different symphonic bands. She was part of our marching band and the standard big band at the school. She would do private auditions for various organizations. She was always very inspiring because she was so dedicated to her craft. She would talk about wanting to play with the best musicians in the world and travel and see all that she could, and she could do it through her instrument. I think that I was jealous of her and her tenacity, but not only that, she also carried her competitive nature into other areas of her life academically; she would always strive for the past and work as hard as possible to get the best grades in the class. One of my memories was playing with a  different group for a song we played with the orchestra at our school when they played Harry Potter.

I remember going into the room that I had never been in with all of the string players, and we got our new music. It was difficult, and we tried our best to sight-read and understand as much of it as we could on the spot. Still, I remember it bothered her that she couldn't get the music right the first time she played. One time in the band, there was a new female trumpet player at the beginning of a new year. Sally was ecstatic to have another girl in the trumpet section because there had been none except for her. I remember discussing our new music pieces with the band teacher. We were supposed to discuss who would get which pieces of music. Sally would always take the first piece of music because it was the most important, and most of the time, the rest of the trumpet players also got to play that, but some of us were forced to play the second piece. Once, when we were receiving new music, Sally took all of the first pieces of music and kept them for her and the new girl. It bothered me a lot at the time because the new girl wasn't very good at the trumpet. The rest of us were more eager to play the first piece, but Sally was determined to have the new girl play this more challenging piece of music and teach her, if necessary, so she could be just as good as her. A few of my friends and I am in the trumpet section, brought the situation to our teacher because we didn't think it was appropriate to have such an inexperienced player on such a complex piece, and even though the band teacher warned Sally that the first part for the trumpet was essential to the song Sally was still determined to have the new girl learn the peace. Eventually, it almost became an arrival between the rest of the trumpet players and the two girls trumpet players over who could play their pieces best because we were determined to play our pieces as best as possible no matter what, so there was always this tension. Still, it was alright. It let us grow as people, and that competitive nature really came from Sally. Sally went to practice before and after school with the new trumpet player because she was determined to teach her everything she could to play the piece when we didn't think she'd be able to. Eventually, we played our music at the end of the year, and all the practice paid off. Everyone in the trumpet section could play their best on the piece. The new girl was able to play just as well as Sally was; I think that this is a significant event in my life because it showed me that even if there's a situation that you're not comfortable with or happy about, it can still lead to really positive things and more specifically that healthy competition is very beneficial to growth not only in your skills but in the person that you become I think that Sally really showed that to me. It was due to her desire to support this new trumpet player, try to be the best she could be, and have everyone else be the best they could, too.