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Thoughtful comments from tenor
drummer Gord LeFevre on the May 1st GAS weekend
Life without goals is like a ship without
a rudder. You may get to your destination eventually but
the trip is likely to be circuitous at best and not a
lot of fun. Some of us need goals more than others. Some
of us don't need goals and would take comfort in a
Yiddish turn of phrase, "Goals, smoals, as long as you
get there". My problem is I'm a charter member of the
group that needs goals. I have the attention span of a
gnat and tend to get antsy when I lose focus. If I were
to have had the misfortune of going through today's
school system, I would be diagnosed as having Attention
Deficit Syndrome and provided with Ritalin as a snack
food. The point is that I need goals to keep me
challenged and focused. This is why I was relieved and
happy to learn that we have applied to perform at the
DCA championships in Scranton, PA, in September, 2005.
I was concerned after GAS that there would be no more
mountains to climb as an Alumni Corps and that we would
quietly and unobtrusively fade from the Alumni-Corps
scene not unlike the one-hit rock band, "The Oneders",
from the movie, "That Thing You Do". I should have had
more faith in our membership and our executive, a
significant factor, in my opinion, in all of The
Optimists' achievements, past and present.
Assuming we will be invited to participate at the DCA
championships, an honour in its own right, I believe we
now have the major goal we need to keep us interested,
challenged and focused on continuous improvement. I
think most of us would agree that we have far from
peaked and that we are more than capable of going to the
next level. What an inspirational and motivating goal we
now have: Playing in front of a rabid, knowledgeable
drum corps crowd with the Alumni Corps of some of the
past legendary Junior A Corps! Gadzooks, I'm tingling
all over at the thought of this.
These past twelve months have been fun. I have had the
opportunity to socialize and play with Alumni members
from all Optimists' eras and from other fine drum corps
and bands. What a blast this has been!
Looking back on the past year, it occurred to me that my
tenure in the drumline has been like licking honey from
a thorn. It has been a very challenging, rewarding and,
at times, frustrating experience to be a part of the
Optimists drumline. I have noticed a peculiar pattern in
my development: Every time I smugly think I have
achieved all my goals, I humbly find out at the next
practice that I'm not as good as I think I am, that
there is something else that I need to learn and master
and that I need to keep working as hard as I can to
enjoy the privilege of playing in this talented line.
I think the best is yet to come.
Best regards, Gord
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