Robyn Brody

What a year. What a special year. Our show says it all-"Three Decades." It wasn’t until after our finals show that I finally understood what everyone had pretty much been saying all along. That the 2002 year wasn’t just another show. It was a memorial to the history of our corps. It was 4 of the best pieces ever played in the history of the Blue Stars, with loads of nostalgia and a proverbial tip of the hat to anyone who has ever donned the Blue Stars Uniform or put their creative energy into a Blue Stars Production. And some cool new stuff too.

Ironically, enough, the corps was green. Almost all rookies. The pit and battery combined had one vet. One of our staff members once said, “I expected this year to be a rebuilding year. It turned into a break-out year.” All of those rookies (myself included) took into the Blue Stars ideal with heart and mind, and a passion to continue a tradition we hardly knew. But we wanted to learn, and we did. Of course we took home a DCM championship and won a close silver medal at DCI. That stuff is all down on the books. Pretty standard for the Blue Stars actually. Excellence is not something to be achieved, it is something to be continued. What you WON’T find in the books is what kind of corps we were that year. I’ll tell you what I remember.

We were a corps of family, first and foremost. It wasn’t like the colorguard had their family, and the battery had theirs, etc. No, we were all family.

We were a corps of dedication. We decided to overcome our rookie-ness, and the difficulty of the show, and the newness of the staff, and put together one of the most exciting, memorable shows ever.

We were a corps of passion. Like I said, I think that as an entity, we lived as Blue Stars through and through, and used that tradition and pride as momentum for everything we did and aspired to achieve.

And it all- the sweat, tears, laughs, and hugs- came to a culmination on Finals night. A grand one. We peaked in a way we didn’t know we were capable of. You know how during a specific rehearsal or show, something falls together perfectly, and you’re like “Yes!! Let’s do it like that every time!” but it doesn’t necessarily happen again? Well, this show was like all of those moments falling in place with each other, beginning with our warm up, continuing with the singing of the corps song, to the roar of the crowd as we stepped onto the field, and ending with the slam down to parade rest while tears streamed down our cheeks. It was the embodiment of Finis Coronat Opus, and no one on the field or jumping up and down screaming in the stands will ever forget how that felt.