A few weeks ago, I auditioned to get into one of four a cappella groups at Swarthmore. I was wandering around at the club and activities fair, and I heard people calling out to join a cappella groups. I stopped by Grapevine's table because the purple color really caught my attention. By the time I left, I had already filled out a form that set my audition date.
When the day came, I was a little nervous because it had been a little more than a year since I had done an audition. But when the time came, I knew it wouldn't be as bad as I thought. I felt like I did pretty well, and I was delighted to get a message about the call-back audition. This time, I was able to sing a whole song. I chose Desperado, one of the songs that I know very well. While I sang, I completely forgot about the audition and just really enjoyed it.
After a few weeks, I didn't hear back from them. I was getting a little antsy thinking that I didn't get it, but I was left even more confused when I talked to one of my friends, and she said that she got an email saying that she didn't get in. But I had neither a confirmation nor a denial, so I just waited some more.
One evening, I was doing my own thing when I got a message from one of the Grapevine members that I knew pretty well. She asked where I was and told me to wait there a little bit. I got a little confused, but I also had an inkling of idea of what was going on. A few minutes passed, and the members of the group came to where I was and started singing! It was their initiation process of welcoming me to Grapevine - I had got in!
Rehearsals were fun, even if it happened 6 hours a week. Some people were surprised when I told them that we rehearse that much, but that's the reason why we sound so good! It also helped bring us together pretty quickly because we were seeing each other so often and for so long. And there's something about harmonizing together that creates a strong bond :D Grapevine has so many talented people; everyone's voice is unique and adds nicely to the group's dynamics, and the fact that we arrange our own songs is also pretty awesome.
Then came concert day. We rehearsed seven songs for the concert. I loved how it all sounded and I was so happy that I was able to perform again, just like I did in high school. Quite a few of my friends came, and it went really well! Here are two songs that we sang in the concert, but if you go to the Grapevine YouTube channel, you can find all the other songs, plus songs from previous years. We have a joint concert (with the three other a cappella groups), and I'm so excited about that, too! I love the community that we built, and I hope we can sing songs together for a while.