A personal account from a group member
Sam Grieves writes about her experience of joining the adult SING group
The singing is great! (But the group is what makes it!)
You don't know what to expect when joining something new. Undeservingly I had grown to expect faces staring at you curious and unapproachable. An invite in the free paper encouraged me to turn up to the new singing group for Darlington one bitterly cold Wednesday night. Taking this decision has turned out to be one of the most enriching I have ever undertaken.
Occasions such as these are rare; to enter somewhere new and forget all feelings of doubt and uncertainty you may have arrived with. To meet up with friends; friends not defined by shared years together; friends instead so generous and warm, that you never consider a time when you weren't part of that group. I haven't been with the group long at all, but already a Wednesday night has now become a significant event, defined by this particular pursuit.
Inside these walls great music may be made but the atmosphere generates something much greater. It's a focus and pleasure, laughter and an extension of yourself that places you somewhere quite extraordinary. It's a social occasion in the extreme; a place where you fail to notice the variation in age or background. A place where you try new things and when you share these with an audience - such achievement can send ripples down your spine.
And when retuning home on that Wednesday night, your mind may drift back to the reality of the working week; though your heart remains on the satisfaction of the night and the thought that Wednesday will be round again shortly, and so the experience can be returned to again.
What a decision in not staying in with the box; but instead taking the risk of seeing just how much I was missing out on!
Samantha Grieves