My Colorguard Story

When I tell people that I am a part of BYU’s Colorguard, I get quite a few questions. Examples: What’s Colorguard? (:/) Do you get to meet any football players? (not really) Or a guard girl’s worst nightmare: So you are the people who twirl the flags, right? (AHHHHHHH! It’s SPINNING, not twirling you fool!)

But another question I get asked frequently is how I got started with this whole spinning flags thing. And that’s the story I’d like to share with you today.

Honestly, if someone had told me when I was 14 (even when I had just turned 16) that I would be in marching band my senior year of high school and through college, well, I wouldn’t have busted out laughing. Marching band? I was an orch dork—I ate band kids for lunch. I could—no I would—never become a band girl.

But that was before fall semester of my junior year of high school. I hit one of the hardest times in my life, and this time it was internal. I was depressed. Life was terrible. Church was miserable. I felt dead, even in my favorite city in the world: London. I didn’t want to do anything anymore. I wanted to give up.

But one day, as I was heading towards my math class, something caught my eye and I stopped. It was a poster announcing auditions for Mountain View’s winterguard. On the poster, in grainy black and white, was a picture of some girls dancing with flags. My first thought was, “What’s winterguard?” followed by a more surprising, “I want to try out for that.” So I ripped the poster down and brought it with me to class.

For some reason, I just had to learn more about this winterguard thing. I knew that it was somehow connected to colorguard—although I had only seen one guard performance that I knew of. And I knew that colorguard was a part of the marching band. So I began to think of all the people I knew in band. Luckily, there was a marching band member in my ward, so on Sunday, I asked her about winterguard. And to my surprise and delight, not only did she know what winterguard was, she was trying out herself! I didn’t have to audition alone! So together we practiced for the audition. My friend taught me how to spin rifle and I was ready to go.

I was so nervous at auditions. I really didn’t know anyone there except my ward friend. I recognized a few people from orchestra, but most were strangers. To help with that, all of the newbies got matched up to a returning member who helped us learn how to do drop spins. My partner, Diane Harrison, was super adorable and very helpful. Then, over the next 2 days, we learned the dance and flag choreography. Finally, the official audition came. I was so nervous. I wanted this more than I had wanted anything for a while. It was my turn, and with a little prayer beforehand, I performed. I felt great.

Then the waiting began. I remember sitting in my bed reading scriptures. In seminary, we had just been encouraged to use the scriptures to find answers to our questions. Trying this out for myself, I closed my quad and asked if doing winterguard was the right thing. Using the Spirit, I then opened my book to Genesis 24:40:

40 And he said unto me, The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father’s house: 

  And with that word, “prosper”, I knew that this was the right path for me.

So the next day, when I went to check on the results, I saw my name and the rest… is history.