For my first three years of high school, I was in the FHN Marching Band despite hating going to practice and not being half as dedicated as everyone else. My older brother had done it every year of high school and I was determined to do the same. This is why I can say with experience that if people aren’t satisfied with their life, they need to make a change.

The Marching Band is great, and if you love music and performing, I would highly recommend joining; it just wasn’t a good fit for me. No matter what club it is, there will be people who love it and hate it. Sophomore year is all about being done with the trial period, and making modifications. But it’s easy to get trapped thinking that quitting would mean losing friends, or that you failed.

In reality, different things make different people happy, and you’re not always going to like the first thing you try. Telling friends and coaches about quitting is scary, but it gets much easier after that. FHN has a great amount of diversity−enough that anyone could find a place if they are willing to take that step of accepting that something has to change.

While it is true that I drifted away from some of my friends in band, quitting meant more time for other clubs and more time with new friends that I had more in common with. As scary as it was, change turned out to be a good thing for me.