It's been 136 days since students last met together in the band room at SCHS. My struggle right now isn't unique. There isn't a band student or director out there who isn't also struggling with the realities of our current world. I'm angry and hurt for our students who are being robbed of these experiences when their time in high school already goes so quickly. On a personal level, I miss my students and their live sounds. I miss engaging with my school community in person. I miss the communal experience of rehearsing. The vast majority of my summers on this Earth have been filled with music making in large groups. Today, I remember them each fondly as well as mourn my first August without music since elementary school. There’s nothing we would love more than to be able to come together and make music again. There is much healing and humanity in the arts that we NEED right now. In moments of heaviness like this one, I find some sense of light and co