The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a beloved holiday tradition where people will wake up as early as 5:00 a.m. for a front row seat to the beautiful chaos of the morning. This year, senior Victoria Din joined the magnificent bustle in New York City as a member of The Macy’s Great American Marching Band.
The Macy’s Great American Marching Band accepts high school students from across the country, adding extra weight to its rigorous audition process. By spinning various flags and faux weapons, Din has been a member of the Stone Bridge Marching Band’s color guard for years, ultimately preparing her for the audition of a lifetime.
“I started in August of my junior year, and during marching band I was practicing my own stuff on the side,” Din said. “I would go in in the mornings, and I would practice outside to build stamina from the cold…it was just a lot of creating my own routines, watching videos of people who in the past got accepted, and just trying my best.”
Her hard work paid off when Din was accepted to perform, but her hours rehearsing weren’t finished just yet. Much of Din’s time in New York City was dedicated to practicing diligently in preparation for the parade.
“Our rehearsals were either at the hotel–they would offer like the ballrooms for us to practice in–or we would practice in a place called the armory,” Din said. “It’s this soccer stadium that has a turf so we could practice on it.”
The extensive rehearsals made the build up to the parade especially intense.
“We had to wake up on Wednesday at 11:30 p.m. to do hair and makeup, and then call time was at 1:30 a.m. downstairs,” Din said. “Then we got on the buses at 2:00 a.m.; we got to New York at 2:45 a.m. And since it’s A Street, you can’t just practice there because that’s where traffic is. So, we had to practice at the only time when there wouldn’t be traffic: 3:30 a.m.”
With 28.5 million at-home viewers and 3.5 million in-person spectators, onlookers had all eyes on the performers.
I absolutely loved doing it. I hoped I inspired a kid or two to try this out.
— Victoria Din
“We were behind ENHYPEN, which is a really famous K-pop group, and we were behind the baby shark float…it was just crazy,” Din said. “The song that we played for Harold Square was Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffet… In commemoration of what we played, we had cheeseburgers for lunch.”
Although Din wasn’t able to spend Thanksgiving with her family, she went home soon after to spend the remaining holiday with her loved ones. It was ultimately an unforgettable experience that granted Din with a sense of gratitude for the challenges she’d faced.
“It was difficult to grow when the environment I had didn’t allow for growth,” Din said. “By going to an area where everyone there also wanted to do the sport was just amazing. Everyone there was putting in full effort.”
Din’s story is one of hard work leading to recognition, and she hopes others may be encouraged to perform through her experience.
“The executive director, Mr. Rob Simmons, was like, ‘I love your smile and your performance energy,’” Din said. “I’ve never smiled so hard in one week…It was the first time I genuinely smiled while performing for the color guard. Creating a connection with the audience members, I absolutely loved doing it. I hoped I inspired a kid or two to try this out.”
