Michelle Schraudner
Life Editor
Students have come to Pocatello for a number of reasons: academic programs, athletics or the chance to live somewhere new. For 22-year-old Michael Aguirre, it was the chance to become who he was meant to be.
A Fresno, Calif., native, Aguirre’s family moved to the area in recent years. He stayed in his hometown to attend Fresno City College. However, something was missing.
While in high school, the enthusiastic then-teen participated in his school’s color guard. Performing at football games and competing against other teams gave him a thrill he never expected.
“You get this rush when everybody screams, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I love it.’”
Aguirre whispered the last phrase, as if he were telling a secret to his closest friend. After spending a grand total of less than an hour with Aguirre, it quickly became apparent that he views everyone as a close friend of his. Some he hasn’t met yet but everyone is a potentially dear friend, nonetheless.
Aguirre came to the interview for this article wearing bright pants, which he specified were raspberry colored. He side-swept hair emphasized his enthusiasm during the conversation, excitedly bouncing as he gestured and laughed.
Many people treat newspaper writers as strangers, which they often are, and tend to be reserved during at least the beginning of the interview. Aguirre rushed into the room chatting, asking questions and immediately leaning back in the chair to cross one leg over the other knee, comfortable as if we’d been friends for years.
After graduation, he said, he attended college while some of his high school friends taught dance and color guard to high school students. He reminisced about feeling envious, realizing he needed that excitement back in his life.
“I had been wanting to pick it up again and when I was at Fresno City College,” he said. “I didn’t pick it up.”
Instead, he ended up following his family to Idaho after his freshman year at Fresno City College.
“I was trying to get away from Fresno, they were like, ‘Why don’t you come out here?’” he said. “And I was like, ‘Um, I don’t know anything about Idaho except that there’s potatoes everywhere, so let’s go for it.’”
Although he didn’t enroll at ISU right away, he is now majoring in music in his first semester at the school.
“I like vocal performance; it’s the best thing in the world,” he said. “I love singing. I love performing. I just love performing in general.”
Over the summer, his chance to get back into public performing with color guard appeared. While accompanying his younger sister to a marching band camp at her high school, he saw ISU’s color guard team. Some of the girls invited him to join them for their one-week training camp, which he did without hesitation.
Some people might find the all-day practices in mid-summer to be exhausting but Aguirre was nothing but happy that whole week.
“They work really hard in the daytime and it was still fun, lots of energy. They kept the energy really light. It was like peaches and cream. It’s everything you think about,” he said. “When I did it all week, it was awesome. The girls were super nice to me.”
Aguirre was ready to be back in the performing world he loved, and the girls on the team were happy to finally have a boy on their team. They invited him to tryouts, to which Aguirre responded, “‘I’ll think about it.”
“Of course, I showed up!” Aguirre said, laughing.
Naturally, he made the cut and is now a member of the team. This is in addition to his schoolwork and job at the C-Store in the Rendezvous.
Looking back on his time in Fresno and Pocatello, Aguirre noticed marked differences between his experiences then and now.
“I don’t think I had the spirit, the school spirit, when I was at Fresno City College. I think it’s just because I’m a lot more involved here,” he said. “People at Idaho State are a lot nicer and, I think, a little more approachable.”
The variety of daily activities works perfectly for Aguirre, especially the differences in the color guard team’s schedule.
“It’s always different the first and second semester,” he said, noting that’s when the team performs at football games. “The second semester you get to really perform for these judges and there’s such a crowd, you know, the energy and the people.”
The second semester’s performances feature more dancing than marching, giving the team new routines to work on.
Those who attend ISU football games likely recognize Aguirre as the sole male on the flag team.
Asked what it’s like to be the only man in color guard, Aguirre simply laughed and said, “Fabulous.”
