This year, OSC celebrated 62 years of operation with its annual Founder’s Day assembly. As per usual, the assembly began with the lighting of the lamp by honored guests including the SGA heads, the oldest and youngest students at OSC, both principals, the headmaster and an OSC alumni. My involvement in the program followed whenOSC’s concert band played the national anthem in accompaniment with those in the stands that knew the words.

Throughout the 3 years that I’ve been a part of OSC and its band, I’ve participated in the Founder’s Day assembly. Being completely honest, I had a lot of trouble following along with the music when I was first introduced to it as my trumpet skills were not yet to its standard. I remember one of the teachers in the music department actually composed the version I’ve been playing for 3 years now by hand. I remember there being a couple problems with some of the notes and us having to figure out if the issue was faulty notation or just wrong notes being played by the band members. Unfortunately, most of the problems encountered proved to be revolved around the trumpet section…but looking back, the entire band has come a long way since we were first introduced to that specific arrangement and it’s fun to be a part of another one of OSC’s celebrations.

Hearing the national anthem played by OSC’s very own band pleased many of the local students and parents which made me feel like I was contributing something special to the assembly. Also, when I move to DC at the end of this year, I’ll get to take with me this little piece of Sri Lanka.