Thanksgiving consists of bonding with family, eating tons of food, and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Looking at the TV, you may wonder, what is it like to perform at the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Liberty students, Isabella Izzi and Lyla Matteson, were able to achieve this dream and perform in the 98th annual parade.

Izzi and Matteson were chosen along with 245 other high school participants to march together as the Macy’s Great American Marching Band.

Thousands of other hopeful students auditioned and tried out in hopes to get a spot in the band.

“We had to make an audition of a box drill, which is like a marching technique involving forward steps, side marching, and backwards marching,” Izzi said. “I also had to play a B flat major scale while I was performing a box drill.”

Izzi, Matteson, and other students around the nation, also had to submit a three-minute video of a solo along with a submission of the box drill.

After a few weeks of waiting for the anticipated results, Izzi and Matteson got the exciting news.

“I was in shock when I got accepted, I was hoping I was good enough,” Matteson said.

With only a couple of weeks of preparation left, they headed to New York on Nov. 23, where the Macy’s parade was held.

Marching band students prepared for a week, and on Nov. 28, Thanksgiving Day, they marched on the streets of New York along with other bands, floats, and balloons.

Marching down the streets was a dream for Izzi and Matteson.

This is the second time Matteson was able to perform in the Great Marching Band. Matteson tried out last year for the 97th parade and got in with her audition. This year, Matteson feels honored to perform alongside her friend.

“I’m so proud and honored that I am able to march together with my friend who I have been marching with for so long,” Matteson said.

Because Matteson performed in the 97th parade, the audition process was a lot easier for her this year for the 98th episode.

“All I had to do was tell them I wanted to come back, and just like that I got my spot back,” Matteson said.

For a first-time performer, it was bittersweet to perform and experience and give a dream to not only herself but to her loved one. Izzi shares what this opportunity meant to her and her mom.

“The main reason I auditioned and wanted to perform in the parade was for my mom,” Izzi said. “It has always been a dream of hers to go down and watch the Macy’s parade.”

This was the perfect opportunity to give Izzi’s mom her dream to watch the parade.

While this Thanksgiving may not of been typical for these students and their families, the experience is something they are sure to be thankful for.