Growing up, many kids learn the important lesson: Don’t be a sore loser. Yelling things like “you suck” and “I’m ten times better than you” just because you think you should have won instead was never an acceptable thing in my house. But more importantly, I think what kids really need to learn is how not to be a sore winner.

Growing up in Canyon and being a student at Canyon High has taught me that rivalry is just something I am going to have to get used to. Here, we have both Randall and Amarillo High out to beat us in any sport that they can. My brother graduated from Canyon High and was a player on the football team, so I always understood that Randall was the one to beat in football. I saw the rivalry between the football teams become a situation that went beyond just sports and turned everything into something personal.

The purple posse’s “put it in the bag” video was an example of that. The fights that erupted in the comments of the video started as people criticizing the other team’s skill to criticizing grades and the character of the students.  For the first time, I became ashamed of the was my school was being represented because of the disrespectful things they were saying about people just because they did not want to let go of their pride.

Once I entered the realm of high school, I realized that what I had experienced from the side-lines was a completely different thing from being right in the middle of the chaos. Winning football games became something that I actually cared about and for once, I was participating in the madness. Though being a member of the band is a completely different kind of crazy.

The best part of marching contests is actually getting to meet people from the other bands. Though Randall and Amarillo High School are still our rivals, we love playing games and the competition is always friendly. However, I quickly learned that not every band has the same standards of respect that I have experienced within the region.

The band travelled to Lubbock for the Area UIL competition last month. I knew that the chances of us winning the contest were slim, but I was hopeful. Once the band had performed, we quickly got into the stands next to other bands to hear the results. When it was announced that we had not placed first, there was a strange feeling of peace within the band. It was like every member of the band knew we did our best and there wasn’t anything we could have done better. There were no regrets.

As we were leaving the stadium, we happened to walk past the winning band. I saw the members of my band ahead of me saying “good job” and “good luck” but I could see the smiles leave their faces. When I got closer to the winning band, I understood why everyone was so upset.

I have never had so many curse words thrown at me at once. A number of the winning band students were yelling at the other bands and being terribly disrespectful. I wanted to find their band director and tell him how rude his students were being, but I knew it wouldn’t make a difference.

I am not saying that I have never had anything bad said about me. I am just not used to having it said to my face and then not having the authority to say anything to stop it. All I could do was walk past the band and keep my head down. Of course, that’s when the tears came.  This was my last chance at state but then on top of that my last chance ended with getting yelled at because we “sucked.”

Another thing I have learned about rivalry is that fighting back is not an option. I learned that the most fun way to react is to smile and make fun of their idiocy. Then, I thank my mom for teaching me to treat people better than how I was being treated at that moment. I just hope that the world can move in a direction where respect becomes something that doesn’t need to be taught, it becomes human nature.