On Saturday, I'll be attending my last home game at Notre Dame stadium as an undergraduate.
On Wednesday of next week, I'll embark on my last Thanksgiving Break as an undergraduate.
During the two weeks after that, I'll be attending the last classes of my second to last semester as an undergraduate. And then I'll be taking my second to last set of final exams as an undergraduate.
Needless to say, I'm starting to freak out. The thought of being a second semester senior scares me. It brings about thoughts of graduation, finding a job and becoming an adult. Scary.
To pacify these fears, though, I have been telling myself that I still have second semester. I still have one more chance to add to the outrageous and amazing memories I've already made in the past three and a half years.
Second semester, however, will let me down in one way - there's no marching band.
For the past two and a half years my life has consisted of three things: classes, The Observer and the Band of the Fighting Irish. While I can't claim to be a member of the marching band, they have been a large part of my life since my best friend joined the saxophone section in our sophomore year.
Without the band Katie and I would probably still be spending our Friday nights watching movies in the lobby of McCandless Hall and making fun of the girls running down the steps in their too high heels and too short skirts to catch the Trolley.
Without the band, I wouldn't have been able to ask Matt of the Saxophones to accompany me to the Junior Formal in an Inside Column last year For all those still wondering, he said yes (Thanks again for being a good sport about it Matt!).
Without the band, I wouldn't have realized my obsession with Chicago (the band, not the city), nor would I have been able to see them in concert four times and meet them.
Without the band, I wouldn't have met half of the amazing people that I have come to call my friends.
All in all, the band is pretty much salacious.
Even with all the good things that have come out of my acquaintance with the band, I have a love/hate relationship with it. For example, I love watching the band perform their halftime shows on game days, but I hate it because they leave me alone on campus every Monday through Thursday throughout first semester. The only reason they aren't taken away from me on Friday's for practice is because I go to them. I've only missed two Friday marchouts and practices in the past two years. I even hobbled out to marchout when I was on crutches the Friday before the Pitt game.
I also don't get to sit with most of my friends at football games as they are on the field. However, I have adjusted my game day schedule to fit in time with them. No tailgating for me. Instead, I drive Saint Mary's band girls to Notre Dame freakishly early in the morning and make my way to each and every Concert on the Steps.
Still, I can deal with eating dinner with my few friends not in band or accompanied with my trusty copy of The Observer if only because it means the senior show, our senior show, at this week's game will be amazing.
I have faith that it will be.
And to all my senior friends in band, as per my stalker tendencies at every other marchout and game during the last three years, you can rest assured that your last weekend performing at home will be well documented.
Thanks for a great two and a half years, guys.
