Monday, September 10, 2012

Band Boosters: Emptying the Nest, Losing a Community Connection

Tonight is the first Band Boosters meeting of the year.  I am starting my 5th year as an officer - my second year as President.   And though I have been telling myself, just one more year of monthly Monday commitments, I am wondering if it is going to be a big shock when next year, it is just gone out of my life.  For that is the thing, when your last one goes, it is not just your child that is missing from the house, but it is all the activities, schedules, organizations, and connections to community that goes with him.  For our family, our children's involvement in the high school band, and my involvement with Band Boosters, is really the only connection to the town we live in.  Since neither myself nor my husband are from here, and neither of us have family here, the schools are our link to this town.  When that connection is severed next year, there is really nothing holding us here (Except pathetic real estate values and virtually unsellable homes - it was great living in one of the fastest growing counties in the country.  Until it wasn't.)  We do have nice neighbors, but the majority of them are still firmly in the "kids in school" stage of life.  Our jobs take our focus away from here, though the community college where I am on faculty includes this town and draws many students from our town.  Working through this process of leaving this part of the community and figuring out what to replace it with is part of the purpose of this blog.  I know there are plenty of empty next blogs out there, but those are for another day.

For now, I have a meeting to run and new band families to welcome!


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