When I first started reading the four challenges that inspired this blog, the easiest immediately appeared to be karaoke. I actually managed to tick it off the list within my first week of being in London, however I'm realising there's more to this simple task than meets the eye.
To provide a bit of background the exact wording of the challenge was, "KARAOKE (you can do this anywhere but you have a crazy good voice and its easier in front of strangers, especially if they're British)". My friend and I used to take music together as well as being choir nerds in high school. She would often accompany me on the piano for group assignments, so she knows better than anyone how nervous I get singing in front of people. I have no doubt that this deceptively harmless idea was presented to encourage me to take on the new and scary.
I was reminded of the karaoke recently as I've had a bit of 'new and scary' thrown my way. It was suggested by friends that I start going out and enjoying the London dating scene. As I'm 23 and have only been on one bad date in my life, this thought terrified me. The date was with a complete stranger who I met one night when collecting my drunk friends from a club. When he asked me out I was tempted to say no, but was encouraged by my girlfriends as I was only recently single and had never been on a date. The conversation throughout the dinner was nothing groundbreaking, but he was perfectly nice. It all seemed to take a turn when I thought it best to broach the subject of his age. I had spotted P plates on his car when he picked me up, but had naively hoped that he had taken his driving test at an older age. It turned out that the cute Irish tradey (no less) was in fact an adolescent and younger than my little brother. What's worse was his reaction to my age, making me feel undoubtedly like a cradle snatcher.
I think for me, singing is like dating. I have had some bad experiences of forgetting my words or losing my voice and as a result have become more and more timid performing in front of others. In both dating and singing my worries come from holding onto bad experiences and worrying about others' judgments.
As mentioned, I have ticked the karaoke box since the challenge was set. Once with my tour group in Scotland, and the other with an old friend and her mates in Soho after a pinot-feulled dinner. The latter involved masks of the royal family, a tambourine and a private booth and was actually a lot of fun!
So really karaoke has taught me that sometimes you just have to get over your fears of judgment or any bad past experiences and get on with it! All those worries disappear when you realise how much fun you're having. Also, a little wine doesn't hurt to loosen the inhibitions. I feel that all of these lessons should be applied to my irrational fear of dates. I'm sure my friend wasn't talking about dating when she said, "it's easier in front of strangers, especially if they're British", but I think her philosophy definitely applies to more than karaoke!
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