WORKIN’

My friend was a majorette and in the summer before our senior year in high school she said she would teach me how to twirl a baton. I hadn’t asked, she offered to do it on her own. She lent me her old baton and taught me to do the “level spin”. Everyday I practiced with that old baton which weighted a lot more than the newer ones and everyday I banged the inside of my right elbow which became black and blue and swollen. It really hurt but I kept on workin’ until I could control it and later I learned how to do more spins. By the end of the summer my bruising was gone and I had learned all the routines the majorettes used.

Before school started, there were auditions for playing in the band as well as majorette tryouts. These were all done on the auditorium stage. Standing alone in the middle of the large stage, I twirled for the band director. I had worked so hard that I did the whole routine for him and didn’t flounder once. He asked me why I hadn’t tried out before. I remember walking home that day totally elated and not quite believing that I had succeeded. I had become a majorette and then I finally got my own baton.

The moral to the story is to work hard at whatever you want to do, no matter how much it hurts or makes you uncomfortable. The reward is the jubilation you feel when you have accomplished your goal no matter how insignificant it may be in the minds of others.