13 May 2014: Unfair Punishment

Today was incredibly frustrating as we were informed that Kian, Dylan and Luke were not allowed to rehearse with us until they have a meeting with college tutors about their unauthorised absence last week. Considering we've already lost a week of rehearsing with them, I find it ludacris that the rest of the group is being punished for their decision to go on holiday. With The Lounge commencing in less than a week, it is essential we utilise as much rehearsal time as possible, especially considering that all but one of our instrumentalists have been absent for the past week - 2 weeks before the show date might I add.

I feel the college I attend has made a critical error in banning Kian, Dylan and Luke from rehearsing with us until it is decided how to punish them. In doing this, they jeopardise the success of our event even further by robbing us of rehearsal time that we are already very short on. Myself, Serena, Crystal, Stefan, Elica and Tamara did not book a holiday during term time and we do not deserve to suffer from the added stress caused by this decision at such a critical time in our rehearsal schedule and course as a whole. Our show will most certainly be impacted by the loss of another day's rehearsal - there's only so much we can rehearse to pre-recorded backing tracks. This decision has made me very resentful as it's caused unprecedented levels of stress that are affecting my ability to rehearse effectively and fulfill the responsibilities of my job role.

Furthermore, when we attempted to commence rehearsal without them, we had to waste more time looking for a room to rehearse in which I feel is completely unnacceptable considering this was a scheduled lesson.

With tension and stress levels high we did not do much rehearsing other than giving feedback to Elica who performed her solo, "Read All About It". Instead we discussed our plans for the food and refreshments we'll be selling on the night along with entry frees.

After today I am very concerned about the outcome of our show as it has become apparent that our college clearly does not have the group's best interests at heart. This is implied by the college's insistance on punishing Kian, Dylan and Luke at the expense of the rest of the group who have done no wrong; possibly jeopardising our grades as the quality our final performance will certainly be impacted with even more rehearsal time lost - not to mention the lack of rehearsal space.