English Composition: Significant Memory

So, You Want the Beginning?

On one of the worst days of my life I received a letter that would change my life, dramatically. What made this day so bad I don’t remember, all I know is it was. Once I got off the bus I started to walk the block to my house while talking to my new neighbor. As we progressed closer to my house I told him about how bad my day had been, I also added that nothing but a letter from Signature could make this day any worse.

For the last week I had been waiting for this letter but as the days passed I soon started to dread its arrival. This letter would tell me whether or not I could even show my face at auditions for one of the best winterguards in the state (at the time I didn’t know that no one was ever denied the privilege to audition). It had been so long since I sent out my application I thought that maybe they were never going to send me anything. So why should today be any different. Why should the mailbox yield anything to me besides bills and junk mail that doesn’t even have my name on it? Maybe I should just go inside and skip the mailbox, since I don’t get anything, ever.

But out of habit I checked the mailbox before I went inside. I opened the flap and it made the creaking sound it always did. Flipping though the mail it looked like, as usual, there was nothing for me. That is until I noticed the envelope that had the Signature logo on it; I ripped the envelope apart to see what the contents were. The first sentence was something along the lines of, “we are glad that you are interested in joining out winterguard, we look forward to seeing you at the audition”. Later in the letter it also said, “enclosed is the schedule”.

At this point I didn’t know what to feel: angry, upset, happy. So I think what I actually did was a combination of all of the above. I threw down the letter, stomped on it, while I cried, and told the letter how bad my day had been and it should have come yesterday when I wanted it. To any passerby I probably looked like I was crazy. Fortunately the only one around was my neighbor who was laughing at the whole thing, and quite frankly I think he was crazy.

Once I composed myself the best I could I started to laugh with my neighbor. Then I picked up the letter, which now had small holes in it and a nice texture from the street that I stomped it against, and tried to flatten it out and dust it off in vain. What do I do now? Beyond submitting that application I had no idea. Since I have gotten this far I guess I can go farther, so I guess that means I’m going to auditions! Let’s see how far I can take this.

How far can I take this? Far enough I guess. Three years later I find myself still a member of Signature. Despite what everyone thought, I’m still here. I’ll also be the first to say that I had no idea how much farther I really had to go, and I don’t know how to stop even when the final destination has been reached. Why stop at the border when you can see the world? My whole experience with Signature has been just that. I set the standards high and when I reach them I set them higher. In this aspect I could be with them forever. Now only if I could find the fountain of youth than I really could.