KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Last we saw John Cisetti, he was practicing marching alone in his garage.
"It's kind of exhausting just marching around in circles by yourself," Cisetti, a former Louisburg band director, said. "But when you're with the group, you draw strength from each other."
It all came together on Thursday, as 400 band directors across the country performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They're part of a group called the Band Director's Marching Band.
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"The sound of our band, the sound of those former band directors was just, it was incredible," Cisetti said.
He's been the director in countless parades, but this time, he was part of the band. He said the days leading up to it were physically challenging.
"We were getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get on the bus and go over to our rehearsals," Cisetti said. "And so there wasn't a lot of sleep, there was a lot of marching and a lot of work."
It was about a year's worth of work, both solo and with the group, for a performance that felt like a split second.
"And yet that split second was so so special," Cisetti said. "That, you know, something you'll always remember."
Another moment he'll never forget, seeing his family cheering him on.
"To see them waving and cheering, that meant an awful lot," he said. "I'll always remember that."
The parade was something Cisetti's worked toward his whole life, but in the end, it's more than just a check off his bucket list.
"You think about not just yourself, of course, but you think about your own band director when you were in school, and you think about all of your kids that you're teaching, and the fact that you're there representing all of them, and your family, and your community," he said.
Now, after this experience, he's part of a new community, who loves band just as much as he does.
"Teaching is kind of a lonely profession," Cisetti said. "If you can have those connections with other teachers, and share ideas, and share how you handle things, it is really helpful. And then you realize, well, I'm really not alone, I'm really not doing this alone, because we're all in this together."
There's strength in numbers, and as it turns out, performing with others is a lot more fun than performing by yourself in your garage.
"We have a saying 'the band makes me strong,'" Cisetti said. "And everybody was saying that, 'the band makes me strong,' because the more we did it, the better we got."
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