Submitted by Sarah Spencer
On Friday November, 2nd Sapulpa Chieftains celebrated their football, ping, cross country, and band senior night. All of the seniors in the saxophone and horn line got a senior night gift. The saxophone line spent hours on making a binder with colorful paper and printed out pictures of moments from the seniors time in band. They gathered all of their seniors into a room and handed them their gifts. With my eyes closed I reached out to grab my gift and on the count of three we all were to open our eyes. “1-2-3 open!”
I opened my eyes and was flooded with bittersweet memories as I flipped through the book and got to relive my best moments from the last four years. Every senior in the room started to cry. Some had a tear or two there and others sobbed into their underclassman’s shoulder. I felt my eyes start to water when I started seeing pictures of my best friends and old friends. I cried to my best friend next to me and he did his best to reassure me that we weren’t going to grow apart. All of our biggest fear. That we were going to leave and never talk to anyone that made such and impact in our lives ever again.
We all gathered together as we prepared for the emotional night before us. For our last show warm-up the brass and woodwinds started together instead of starting separate. Afterwards we lined up to march into the field. After pre-game we all piled into the stands and it felt like the energy we typically radiated was now quadrupled.
When the drumline played a cadence everyone danced—not just a few—everyone moved and danced along to our songs, and everyone joined in on our chants. The band was as close as it had been all year. Eventually, it was time for half time. The band lined up ready to perform and as you looked around, all you could see were people grabbing on to the people they cared about so much for dear life.
We walked on to perform and made this the absolute best performance of the year. The seniors final chance to perform their show for a crowd. Our amplified energy was projected onto our audience and we played as loud and as confident as we could until the last note and then we slammed our horns down and waited for the seniors signal.
The two taps on the snare told all of the senior to meet their parents down on the track. The ping, band, and color guard seniors lined up to listen their accomplishments this year and to play the school song one last time. The first time played would just be seniors and the the second time our underclassmen joined us. The parents locked their eyes onto their kid and you could only see pride and love in their eyes.
All of the hard work we all have put in the last four years finally didn’t seem like that much. We were all ready to finally be done with highschool until we realize exactly what we were leaving behind. After half time it was once again time for us to go to the ones we were closest with and have our final moments with them.
Third quarter was spent taking pictures and doing as much as possible together.
Fourth quarter rolled around and if I thought the energy was quadrupled before it was double that now.
Everyone went even harder. The football team was giving us plays to cheer for and touchdowns we went ballistic for. This was the night all of the seniors were going to remember. The football team won the game and for the first time in years we were going to play-offs.
