By: Chris Roshell
Dominic Lawrences, a junior at McPherson College majoring in Business Management and Marketing, has heard the buzz since his first year of transferring to McPherson college. Between classes, football games, and working part-time off campus, Dom has always missed out on school events, but this time he told his boss early. He made sure to do everything he needed to do to have this day free. “I kept hearing how crazy and fun it gets,” Dominic said.
Dressed like a typical football player in a red McPherson College hoodie and shoes, Dom stepped outside looking for his group of friends. The whole campus was already buzzing with excitement. Throughout the day the campus started to get bigger and bigger with off campus students arriving. The school had different events going on. Bounce house, bull riding, big gloves and many more. For 3 hours the school was filled with happy students enjoying a day of relaxing and appreciating the work they had done. Once Campus blowout started to die down, it was time to start bouncing to houses for parties. Students scattered to dorms and off-campus apartments to change into party fits. Dom, ready for the parties, changed into a black graphic tee, rip jeans, and a chain. Due to campus blowout being earlier and ending faster students got back a lot faster than most years. So, for the next 2 to 3 hours the student slept until it got a bit later to party, not Dom. While everyone else was relaxing. He and his friend went to hutch to keep the day going. They went to a roller-skating rink and went to the mall in Wichita. At the mall they mostly just walked around and compared how different the mall was in Wichita to their malls back home.
On their way back to McPherson one of Dom’s friends informed him that when they get back the fun part starts. The first party they went to was in an off-campus apartment. Dom said the atmosphere wasn’t bad and they were playing good music, but it was only the first party so not a lot of people were there. After about 2 hours they left and headed to another house party. This house party had more of the college atmosphere Dom was looking for. “Flashing lights, loud music, drinks and beautiful women” Dom says. The party felt like it couldn’t end for Dom until he did. The owner of the party got a noise complaint and had to turn down the music which made everyone want to leave, but that was ok because there was 1 more party. The only bad thing was it was back in Wichita where they just left from. So, with a couple of conversations and convincing words they were able to get their friend to drive to Wichita. At this time, it was about eleven o’clock. Everyone was getting tired but didn’t want to end the night.
When they got to the last party you could see the defeat on their faces. All they saw was red and blue lights with 4 or 5 cops kicking and pouring people’s drinks out. Everyone in the car was mad to see an hour trip go to waste but Dom. Despite the long drive and the let down at the end of the night, Dom couldn’t stop smiling as they rolled back into McPherson in the morning. His feet were sore, his voice was gone, and he had more stories than he could count. Dom said that “Even though the last party got shut down, it was still one of the best days I’ve had in college,” Dom said. “It was non-stop fun, and I finally felt like I got to experience what everyone had been talking about.” For Dom, the Campus Blowout wasn’t just about the events or even the parties, it was about finally being present, living in the moment, and making memories with people he’d only known through football or class.
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