By Photo Editor: Gabe Seck

Senior Natalie Dunn is what would be expected from the average American teenager. She hangs out with her friends, goes to camp, is in a relationship, and has yet to miss a home football game. As a matter of fact, Dunn hasn’t missed a home game since the fall of 2009. Dunn has spent hundreds of hours on the field in the shadow of Howell High School through the rain and shine. No, she’s not a football player; she’s in the marching band.

Dunn has taken on more as a senior than some students do in their entire high school career. Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, The Main Four, Dunn piggybacks this with the stress of her last year before college and being in band.

“Band keeps me sane, to be honest,” Dunn says, “I can want to tear my hair out, but it all goes away during marching band. I’m not in school, I’m in band.”

“I started band in sixth grade, I played the trombone. My uncle played tuba, so I guess that’s a reason…I’ve always wanted to try it, I got my chance in seventh grade, and I haven’t stopped since,” Dunn says.  Dunn is one of only two girls who plays tuba for the Howell High School Marching Band. “What I love about tuba is that I don’t look like a tuba player.”

Dunn is certainly right; she stands five feet tall as the shortest tuba player in the band. “Because I don’t look like I belong, people notice me. I love it.  Smigell [HHS’s band director] always says that ‘tubas are joyous creatures.’ The tuba section is my family.”

“She’s dedicated,” says junior Maddie Arszulowicz, the other girl tuba player, adding, “and always friendly.”

Daniel “Grigs” Grigsby, the other senior leader of the tuba section had this to say of Dunn, as a wide smile grew on his face: “She’s a total sweetheart!” The feeling is returned, as Dunn says of her co-captain: “Daniel is one of my absolute best friends. I don’t know what I’d do without him…and the guys are so much fun…we don’t have to be serious about anything but music. I love them all.”

Every year, the Howell High School marching band goes to band camp, but this camp is nothing like the relaxing canoe rides on the lake we are all used to. It’s like boot camp. Dunn, along with the other marching band members, wakes up early and stays on her feet for hours in sometimes over-ninety degree weather while carrying her heavy instrument on a simulated football field with no shade.

“There’s this thing we always do,” Dunn says, “a tradition to make the new members part of the family. At the end, [Smigell] says, ‘you’ve worked with us, you’ve eaten with us, you’ve played with us, and now you’re one of us.’ Then they run and yell and cheer.”

As I watched Dunn’s face, she wasn’t telling me about the freshmen who have run past her with their arms held high. She was telling me about the time she yelled and cheered. Dunn’s eyes turned red and she laughed, wiping her eyes to make sure no tear escaped.

“Band is my family,” Dunn says. “It’s hard to be without them. It’s hard, thinking this will be my last first home game, my last year as a part of the Howell marching band. When it’s over, it’s over. But there’s nothing like the Howell band.”

“I’m between colleges at the moment,” Dunn says. “I’m looking at Central but have also been looking at Adrian. I don’t know, when I visited Adrian I could feel it, I just love the atmosphere. It was amazing.” Dunn is planning on majoring in communications and will be joining band no matter where she goes.  When asked why she didn’t want to pursue a career in music, Dunn answered, head held high as tears of happy memories lingered in her eyes, “Music won’t be my career. It’s my passion.”