Seeing as I knew that I wouldn't be graduating from IU, I didn't sign up for marching band as a freshman and I entered the orchestra audition scene at school. It came down to the odds - there were far more tenor players than bass players for the available slots. I ended up playing bass trombone in the 4th orchestra for my first semester, and in the IU Philharmonic orchestra for second semester. I never looked back at tenor trombone after that. A lot of times, being a high school musician is rough in regards to how the other students view those who are in band.
Kids can be brutal.
But I had a very tough skin. When kids call you a wimp, you just ignore them. I was a skinny kid, a real lightweight. Of course some of the bullies made fun of me for carrying my trombone home. They were killing themselves.