Personal Narrative: The Kelleanor Block Party

On Thursday, August 31st, I decided to attend the Kelleanor block party that my undergraduate college was hosting in collaboration with Global Studies. Although the term “party” usually makes me want to run in the opposite direction, I was instantly hooked when I found out laser tag would be among one of the many activities offered at the event. You could say that I’m a competitive person who loves trying new things, so I figured laser tagging would provide me with a new experience. The fact that some of my favorite restaurants like Shake Shack and Chipotle would be providing free food to the attendees sealed the deal for me: I was going to my first block party! As soon as I arrived, I noticed that the lines for the food stalls were a bit

Of course I had to be on the purple team all three times in order to represent Human Development. What intrigued me the most about laser tagging is that a lot of teamwork was involved. We had to work together to figure out who’s going to go to enemy territory and who to target on the opposing side. For all three games, I knew no one on my time but I exited each round with new friends. For me, the most memorable game was my last one. I was the only one left on my team while the opposition had 4 players and they were all trying to gang up on me. Somehow, I ended up getting all of them out and ended up winning the game for my team. I really enjoyed this activity because it enabled me to connect with my peers through teamwork. We were strangers prior to this, but playing laser tag united us through the common goal of winning, so we received the opportunity to work together. I’m very happy I went because I struck up friendship with a few people. It’s important to connect with people especially in college, because right now we’re going to be subjected to a lot of stress and having someone to rely on helps ease the effects of it. Friends are essentially a support system, they’re people who should be motivating you to do your best and everyone needs at least one person who cares about them. Building connection can also benefit you in the long