It starts out just like any other song, but at the end it stops and some light piano music starts playing in the background. Then a women begins to read a letter which she recently received from her lover who is off fighting in some war. In listening to this, two things popped into my head.

The first is the thought of me as that soldier, deep down inside part of me wants to be that soldier. I've always considered myself a patriot and I could very easily picture myself going off to war. I've romanticized about a situation like that before. I can imagine myself going overseas and fighting for those who threaten our freedoms. I picture myself sitting in the trenches and writing a letter home to the one I love. I would write about how I want nothing more than to see her and hold her, and how I'm counting the days until I come home. I want so very much to be someone's hero.

The second and rather odd idea which popped into my head is the idea of drum corps vs. war. I know if I were off fighting a war I'd be the kind of person who would love it, hate it, love to hate it, and hate to love it. That's the same way I feel about DC. In the late evenings after the battle has been waged I would sit and write letters home. When we had a victory it would be the greatest day, and when we were defeated I'd want nothing more than to go home.

Both can break you, but you have to fight. You have to fight in different ways, but you have to fight nonetheless. Now I've never had to fight a war before so of course I have no idea what it's really like, but I do know what Drum Corps International is all about, and that's the closest I think I've ever been.

MUSIC: Blink 182 - I'm Lost Without You