I wanted to share a few posts about some of the opportunities I have taken advantage of along the way. Earlier in 2015 (February to be exact), I drove to Atlanta for to audition for The Voice. I had thought about doing this several years ago, but talked myself out of doing so. This year, I decided to go out on a limb and just do it.
My mom drove me downtown that Saturday afternoon. As soon as we arrived, we could see the line was already out of the building, and parking was very slim. Apparently there was a cheerleading competition, and something else downtown as well. Go figure. We went to the first lot that we found and asked if there were any vacant spots. There was, and it was $20! We had $16 on hand. The guy told us that we could park, but we had to go to an ATM across the street to get the remainder of the charge. My mom said I could go ahead and get in line and she would find me once everything was squared away.
I walked down the street, and thought ok, surely the line ends just around the corner. Nope. Ok, maybe it’s just around the next corner of the building. Wrong again. Oookkkk…. Surely it’s just around the corner of the last side of the building. It has to be, right? No. By this time, I was walking with a couple of other people who were also looking for the end of the line. We made it back to the front of the building, and there was no clear “end of the line.” People weren’t standing in a perfect, single-file line (Elementary teachers would be so disappointed). So we just kind of stepped in somewhere and hoped for the best!
About an hour or two later we made it back around to the front of the building. Ah! The home stretch! About half-way down the sidewalk, we saw a slight setback. The line went down into the underground parking/service delivery area. Smack my head! It snaked around the parking area – it wasn’t just one big loop around.
Another hour-ish later, we made it inside the building! It was already getting dark by now (we started the line around 2:00 PM. Only participants were allowed in the building, so my mom and my new friend’s mom had to patiently wait outside. My heart was pounding with excitement. We made our way up the escalator to a room where we were corralled into about 10 lines. Slowly, they let people up a set of stairs to yet another floor.
When we arrived upstairs, the room was broken out into two main sections of chairs, each section facing each other. There were probably over 1,000 people in there, easily! To pass the time, we did what any group of singers would do – sing! It was so neat to hear this collective group of people singing together like we had been doing as a band. The harmonies sounded perfect. The closer they got to releasing our section to go, the more excited/nervous I was.
Finally! It was our turn! Again, we go up an escalator, and find another (smaller) waiting area. This seems like a cruel joke at this point, but I know I must be getting closer. They took groups of 10 down the hall, to wait outside of one of the 10 or so rooms. There we were. Waiting right outside of the room we’ve waited all afternoon to enter.
We walk in and sit down in front of one person who is there to judge our performance. She has a paper with our names on it, shuffles it so that they are picked at random, and when she calls on us, we step up to the line taped in front of her table, state our name and sing a verse and a chorus. I was second-to-last to go. As I got up, a man entered our room. I looked at her to see if I should proceed or needed to wait, and she told me to go on – so I did. Before I uttered the first note, she turned her head to see what the man needed. As soon as I began, her head turned quickly to my direction. I knew I didn’t botch the note, so I took this as a good sign. I will say, I almost forgot a line, but maintained my game face and had a blast. After we were all done, she told us that some of us were really close, but did not have anyone in our group that she was moving on to the next round.
I walked outside and greeted my mom, telling her the news. I called Jonathan and had such excitement on the phone as I told him about the afternoon, he said, “so I guess you made it?!” “No!” I replied, “but it was so much fun! I want to keep working so I can keep trying!”
I may not impress everyone, every time, but that won’t stop me from pursuing my dream!
The Culver Project 