Kristen Emma Mahler

Dr. Presnell
UWRT 1104-008
22 September 2015
Alternative Literacy Narrative
One thing that I pride on myself is my high level of skill in color guard. Give me a flag
and some choreography, and I will know how to do every move within a very short amount of
time. That being said, it took me a couple years to truly learn how to spin properly, and even
longer to learn ways to remember set pieces of work. Even though I started my sophomore year
of high school, it took me until the winter of my senior year to really excel at my passion. That
is because I struggled both physically, mentally, and socially in the sport until my junior year.
I started doing color guard in the sticky heat of the summer my sophomore year, because
I was too lazy and anxious to start marching my freshman year. The show was about a girl who
wakes up in purgatory and reflects on her life, only to end up going to heaven. The most
memorable music phrase in the entire piece was this low note repeated four times by the horn
line, followed by the musical equivalent of a check mark twice, ending with the first note
repeated four times again. I was an alternate, meaning I was technically marching, but I hid
behind props half the time and I was treated like an imbecile. The coach that year was really
mean, and would constantly put down the other alternate and me. Since she only ever criticized
the other alternate and me without ever showing us how we could get better, I could not do a
simple drop spin to save my life. I could not remember any marching drill sets, which lead to
some quite painful encounters with the sousaphone line. I did not do winter guard that year,
however, because even though I asked the other girls on the team where auditions were being

held, they would always change the subject. Cox Mill high school did not have their own winter
guard at that point, so three girls spun with North West high school, a highly more advanced
group who whipped the students who went into shape. The girls did not want me to audition for
winter guard, because they knew I wouldnt make it.
The wretched first coach was fired midway through my first marching season, and was
replaced with a woman who I will dub Mrs. B. Mrs. B was the same height as the first girl, they
had the same North Carolina accent, and were from the same town. What Mrs. B had that the
other didnt was patience. She was so kind and driven, and would bend backwards to help any of
the girls who was having an issue with the choreography. She would explain in detail what
muscles helped what movement, what parts of the equipment can help a certain toss, and how
different tosses should be done correctly. She helped me more than any other person in my
entire high school career, even when it came to academics.
I decided to buy an old DVD of basic flag techniques and my own practice pole and silk
so I could teach myself how to spin properly before my junior year. The pole was cheap and
unweighted, and the silk was black, so it was never able to be used for anything other than
practice. The DVDs I got were horrid quality and the spinning techniques looked like it came
straight out of the nineties. I worked hard every day on my own with the outdated basics the
discs taught. I also went to every competition my then boyfriend was doing, since winter guards
were also competing at the same events. I studied every group, every trick I saw a member do,
and I remembered them. I wanted to be stronger for the next year, and by the time auditions
came for junior year marching band, I was complimented on my good technique and strength. I
wasnt on rifle line, nor was I on dance line, but I was on the team fully, which was good enough

for me. Since I had Mrs. B to help me, I finally ended up getting a little better at what I fought
tooth and nail to be accepted in.
By the time winter guard started that year, Mrs. B had created Cox Mills very own
winter guard. I was just as good as the other girls on the team that season. I spun with them that
winter, and I loved it more than I loved marching band. I was on a group dance line of four girls
for a time in this show, but I gave it up when they said one person had to quit due to staging
problems after a person quit. I cried, and Mrs. B and her husband saw, which had to be one of
the most embarrassing moments of that season for me. The atmosphere at winter competitions
was different than at band ones. There were only percussion members and guard people, so we
all had a better understanding of what was going on. The competitions were inside, rather than
out on the stadiums in the fall. The food was even a little different. There were funnel cakes and
deep fried Oreos, but also burgers and hot dogs like in marching season. There were booths for
custom t shirts that had guard and drumming related jokes on them. You could turn around at
any moment and find someone who saw your show and they would squeal and say Oh my gosh,
you guys spun so well. I finally felt at home.
By senior year, I got on rifle line for marching season. I was exceeding most of the other
girls when it came to technique and strength, and I was becoming happier and happier as the
practices progressed. The show was Do You Wanna Build a with music from Disneys
Frozen. Even though I was getting happier, I started hating that music by about halfway through
the season. My mother and I grew closer to Mrs. B, and we all started sewing show flags for that
season with some of the other mothers. I was not on Sabre line, sadly. That line wasnt a part of
my guard since my first year marching. Sabres are the swords with dulled edges that the guard
spins. Mrs. B and her husband said outright that group needed more people on rifle during an

all weapon section, but they didnt want mediocre rifle work, so they added a girl Ill call Ms. S
and me onto that line. This meant I spun rifle twice during that show, and since the second rifle
section didnt begin exactly where the first section ended, Ms. S and I had to spin two different
rifles in the same performance. Unlike Ms. S, I understood why I had to spin rifle instead of
sabre, so I wasnt bitter. It just made me want to prove that I could spin sabre well when winter
came.
By winter, I had finally made sabre line. Sadly, nobody else on sabre line practiced,
which negatively affected the entire show. Mrs. B had to make the decision to turn the sabre line
into a watered down rifle line instead for the sake of our competition scores. The show was a
murder mystery about being reincarnated and trying to find out who killed whom. The killer was
revealed at the very end, and I got the part of the murderer. The show ended with me slamming a
door and everyone else falling to the floor, getting up after a second, and rushing towards me,
pushing me down into the ground as an act of revenge. I loved finally doing a dark show
correctly. It was the perfect end to my final year as a high school student and a beautiful way to
say goodbye to the scholastic division of competition.
I had proven to myself and others that I could do something well. My road was very
rocky, but my love and passion for it outweighed the struggles I had constantly faced. I had
achieved every goal I had put my mind to, and that is what I am most proud of. Though I was
put through tough situations every season, I had finally become good at the sport I had come to
love.