Robertson,
Ever since my sister joined the
band in 89-93, I was drawn into your music program. I saw how positive
& fun it was to be a part of the music community in Columbia River.
My sister & her friends were so bonded being in this program that I
actually had something to look forward to in high school.
When I entered the band in 93, I was very excited &
nervous @ the same time, looking forward to having the fun my sister
had. Then I saw how it was to be on the "inside", & boy, was I
wrong. To myself, I thought, "there are bullies in band???" I thought
I'd have to deal w/ these kids for the rest of my high school days. I
never understood why these "cool kids" were in a music program when they
could have just went ahead & drank, smoked, etc. Then, one of
those "cool kids" approached me & brought me some insight. Told me
how you made them feel like they were actually important to the group. I
thought he was just trying to encourage me to stay in band, but then he
told me about how these kids could be doing all those
negative things, but there were too many positive things in band to just
give it up. & he was, in my opinion, correct. These kids chose to
stay, despite all the disagreements they may have had w/ you &
other members of the band. I chose to stay. It wasn't b/c of the
trips, or getting out of classes, or having excuses as to why I didn't
need to do P.E. my whole time in high school. Let's admit it, those
were pretty good excuses. But I just felt like it was a great outlet
& organization to be in. Your reputation really shined w/ this
program. Yeah, I'm sure other band programs made students feel welcome
like this, but I remember many a time where I approached you & you
listened to a lot of the nonsense that I had to deal w/ in high school.
You helped me out, man. I thought it was also pretty cool that you took
time to share a lot of your drum corps moments.
When I graduated, I felt like I had nothing really to
look forward to. I heard you were leaving for Skyview to start a new
program. The new River band teacher would be anti-Robertson, so I felt
like the program in River was gonna fail. I followed your program in
Skyview & I was happy to see that you kept your rep & that
plenty followed you over just to be in your program. You even gave me an opportunity to be an instructor of your program for 1 year. I truly appreciated it.
Through the years, I saw a lot of kids that came after
me love your program. I saw how serious they got about music. I saw
how passionate they got w/ it that they actually ventured into
DCI...& succeeded!
It's just amazing, dude. Plenty of kids may have not
known it @ the time, but you were definitely a great inspiration &
influence in their lives. For that, I'd like to thank you.
Enjoy your retirement, sir, & don't forget how you've influenced plenty of us over the years.
God Bless,
D.O.
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