Opposite to what the films will inform you, the marching band at Ravenna Excessive College is fairly properly revered. This yr’s homecoming king and queen have been each members. “It definitely helps that we have a small school, because we’ve all known each other our whole lives,” mentioned Trinity Dunch, 17, who performs the trombone. “Everybody knows everybody. Someone you’ve grown up with, you don’t really pick on.”
However there are many different issues to fret about. Ravenna, Ohio, isn’t the type of place anyone needs to make films about, Emmanuel Miller, 17, a senior tuba and sousaphone participant, mentioned. It’s the type of place you permit — dwarfed by its next-door neighbor, Kent, house to Kent State College, which has extra undergraduates (greater than 20,000) than Ravenna has individuals (simply over 11,000).
When Ashley Markle returned to {photograph} the band college students at her alma mater, probably the most hanging distinction in her hometown was how anxious everybody appeared: about exams and extracurriculars, dates, faculty prep, determining what’s subsequent. (Ashley, who graduated in 2013, was in Ravenna’s band, too; she performed the flute.)
One factor that hasn’t modified: the escape that the band room can provide.
When she was a scholar at Ravenna, “band didn’t even feel like part of the school, to be honest,” mentioned Ashley. “It felt like I was a part of something special and important. I felt that I could make a difference on a large team of people all striving for something we cared about.”
Lately, that workforce snaps individuals up early. Julia Stratton, 15, in again, and her girlfriend, Nina Fuller, 16, seated on the ground, have each been enjoying flute because the fifth grade.
