When I first moved to Vermillion I didn't really know anybody. So I spend the majority of the month before school started alone. I was fine with it. I had to set up the house and get everything going. I started a job at the alumni foundation call center. Auditioning for the choir was pretty much the first thing that I ever did on campus at USD. When I went back that night to check the list, I wasn't really expecting to get in. I didn't have very high hopes about it and was planning to be happy in the large group choir. When I got to the fine arts center I ran into my roommate Adrian. At the time I hadn't seen him in about 4 years and thought that he was living the charmed life in New York. Turns out that he had changed his mind about his future goals and come back to Vermillion to start something new. We exchanged an awkward hug and went our own separate ways after finding out that we had both made it into the Chamber Singers. Now he's my best friend and I can't imagine life without him. Chamber Singers brought other best friends too. The majority of the people that I hang out with on a daily basis come from this choir. It's been such a ride.
At the beginning of each semester, after all of the new members are chosen, the choir has a retreat. We learn a large percentage of our music at these retreats which makes the rest of the semester a lot easier. Throughout the retreat we play a lot of "getting to know you" games and bond a lot. On the first evening of the retreat we sit in a circle and talk about our commitments to the choir. Its a great time for us. We really learn things about each other during this time. It can be a very emotional and inspiring experience. It really kicks the year off to a great start. We do it again in the spring semester and this year we talked about what our favorite moments of the previous semester were and what we are looking forward to in the current semester. Mostly people were looking forward to our spring tour. This year we're going to the Denver area and coming back through Rapid City. I'm also excited about this. The tour is also a big thing for us. Everything we do all year is leading up to that one week over spring break. We get trapped on a bus for a week with each other and we learn all kinds of things about each other that we didn't necessarily want to know. But it's all part of the experience so I appreciate those moments as well.
Day one of retreat was about 8 hours long. It has reminded me that I have a long ways to go to get into the kind of shape I need to be in to sing these concerts that we have coming up. So much work goes into each and every note and we still have a longs ways to go before it is something that comes naturally to me. Singing for this long after a long winter break was a very exhausting thing. And we start back up bright and early tomorrow morning. Despite all of the stress and frustration that goes into this, it is such a fulfilling experience to make beautiful music with a group of people. That kind of team effort is just something you can't find in any other profession. It is truly a beautiful feeling that I hope to have for many years to come. I know it won't always be in this choir with this group of people. But part of what makes it great is coming together with new people to make completely new music that can't be mimicked by any other group. It sounds corny, but it's like being our own snowflake. Unique and special.
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