Meet FoF / Our First Performance!

I said I'd tell y'all about the new band I'm in soon, and now's the time.

Everybody meet Hilena! She's the beautiful person next to me in this photo, and she's the other member of our band. I sing. She sings and plays the guitar. And we make some pretty cool sounds together. Our band duo is called First of February (or First of Feb, or FoF).

First of Feb in the house! Or rather, on the bus. With an onlooker.

I have a lot to share about how we met and became friends, and how we ended up joining musical forces. But for now I'll just explain our band name. "First of February" may seem simple and random, but it actually took us over an hour trying to come up with it and it has a lot of meaning. February 1st is the date that we got together (literally, we just formed this past Saturday). February is the second month of the year, and there are two of us. February is also Black History Month, and we are both brown-skinned young women of African descent. And February is also the month of love, which is fitting since both Hilena and I are sentimental people in our own ways. So whether people get it or not when we introduce ourselves, we love our name and it is important to us.

We originally formed in order to audition for an upcoming student-run talent show, so tonight we did our first audition/performance as First of February. We sang "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes. Considering how much we've rehearsed this song, our performance tonight admittedly wasn't the best that we've done. However, it still went really well and we received great responses from the group that auditioned us. And even if we don't make it into the show, I'm just so incredibly happy because our band finally feels real now that we've performed for people. Hilena and I have both wanted to be in a band for a long time, and this was my first time singing in front of people since around October. So to be able to come together and finally share our gifts with others as a team.... it's indescribable how good I feel right now. I'm on such a high, and it's more than catharsis. Perhaps this is what joy feels like?

That's us for you in a nutshell. Stay tuned for future awesomeness! I'm so excited!