For Better or For Worse

Happy New Year everyone,


I want to start this post by admitting my writing is usually rambling. I usually sit down at the computer at work and fire off whatever comes to mind, edit it, then post.This is not one of those posts.

Maybe it's age, maybe it's the loss of a few friends who passed away last year, maybe it's the final onset of parenthood, but today's post is about a shift in mentality.

The picture that accompanies this post is the closest shot I could find of me when my first shift in mentality came. I'm pictured here playing solos with Keith Petrie and perhaps ironically my judge here is Roland Reid. I was young, freakin' skinny, and generally care free about pipe band. My hands did anything I wanted, and though I had a lack of "tools in the tool box" I was winning a lot.

Very shortly after this trip I joined St. Andrew's. I got my blue kilt. I don't remember how it happened, or when, but I became obsessed with getting that kilt. I tried to find the first picture of me in it.. I guess it's at my mother's house. The first time I stood beside Bob (Mr. Cooper back then... that took awhile to get used to) James Hoel, Brian Hoel, Tim Newton, Danny Hoplock, Chris Brown, Lee Bowman, and later Dave Bihun, Roland Reid, and Rob Gardner, I became someone.

Of course that was probably in my head, but it was cool anyways. I was "in the bubble" as I call it now. I was 18 and honestly thought that the world revolved around this little building in St. Boniface where we practiced, and Tuesdays became my Saturdays.

Slowly yet surely, the (for lack of a better word) crappy side of pipe band started to wear away at my youthful enthusiasm. I look at that list and realize they're all gone. Everyone of those guys is gone, moved on to other bands or quit. I rarely speak to any of them.

While they have been replaced with young guns, who remind me a great deal of myself, I often find myself wondering what would have happened if they'd all stayed, and the young guys came up.

What fun would we have had?

I can promise you a great deal of these guys left the band because of me. When I took over, I was still in the bubble, operating under the assumption that pipe band was a live or die scenario and if you weren't the best you were wasting time. My competitive side not only lost me players but friends. But I was 22. Stupid, and 22.

The cats out of the bag these days as everyone knows we're struggling for numbers in our pipe corp. Some left for personal things, some for traveling and time commitments. However, there are players out there who bail at the first sign of trouble. This compounds the situation, and honestly leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I wasn't taught this way. I was taught back when I wore this green kilt to stand by your friends and your band. To work at it until it's great. That's why I gave up the pipe dream that was Peel, and that's why I've never left St. Andrew's despite all the struggles I've faced within the organization through the years.

My only shift in mentality is that I refuse to treat pipe band as a live or die situation. I'm going to measure success by the friends I have, not the trophies, and I challenge each player out there to put aside all the "bullsh*t" and just appreciate other players and bands as trying to do their own thing. Let's celebrate each others successes and support each other during struggles.

I'll admit I've never done any of these things in the past. But I'm tired of awkward conversations between competitors. This is my New Year's resolution. To change the way I do pipe band.


Cheers...