As I sat down in the first floor lounge everything appeared normal. There was no evidence that an event was about to take place in less than an hour. While chatting with my friend about her wild and adventurous spring break a game of pool took place behind us.The two guys playing appeared to be friends. When their conversation caught my attention I became more in tuned with my surroundings. I noticed LGBTQ pride flags start to go up and the Towers staff began to roll the speakers in. I was then paying more attention to my environment than my friends insane spring break stories. People began to come in and sit down as the start time got closer. Many of them sat with friend groups and were chatting amongst themselves or looking at their phones.The ones that seemed to have come alone were very attentive to their surroundings. They were looking around at everyone that walked passed and smiling at my friend and I whenever we made eye contact with them. As I continued to look around I saw that a resident from the Towers had arrived as a drag queen. She was dressed in an outfit that was made of plastic bags and a lot of black eyeliner. This surprised me because I thought that no one from the Towers would sign up. In my experience I noticed that many residents do not usually attend the events. However, as I spoke to residents this event seemed to be highly anticipated throughout the week. The turnout was so big that there was barely any space in the lounge of the first floor.

The drag queen that was hosting arrived about ten minutes after the event was supposed to begin and she caught everyone’s attention. The moment that she walked onto the stage everyone’s attention shifted to her. Those who were on their phones looked up and became more in tuned with their surroundings. I noticed that many residents opened their cameras or the snapchat app to capture the moment. I did this as well; I wanted to share the moment with my family at home. As the drag queen introduced herself we learned that her name was Gina Tonic. I observed that she was very good at interacting with the crowd and keeping them engaged even if it was for a few minutes. She was very humorous and even started on one topic and ended up on another in a short span of time. She joked about how her attention span is all over the place and asked us to excuse her disordered speech. It was about fifteen minutes after the listed start time of the event when it finally began. Gina Tonic opened up with a song called Rehab by Amy Winehouse. This was a great song for me because it’s one of my favorites and a lot of people in the crowd were singing along and even dancing. She then had a lip sync medley that was a mixture of multiple songs. The medley started off with Man I Feel Like a Woman by Shania Twain. I definitely did not expect to hear this song because many people that I know don’t really like music like this. I love this song as well and was a bit shy to sing along. However, the crowd was very supportive and uplifting, they were cheering her on. These songs helped to lift then energy of the crowd and get them hyped up. As the event continued she sang a another song that was a disney song. I did not know the name of the song but others knew it and continued to sing along. Gina Tonic got the crowd involved by pointing the mic at them and allowing them to sing along. The individuals that had the mic pointed at them were very open and willing to sing along. They weren’t really shy or did not want to sing along. The next portion was a lip sync battle to the death between two residents. The two residents were guys and they were given costumes to put on. One of them had on a black wig and a pink tutu while the other had on a blonde wig and a green feathered boa. They were just having fun and really getting into character to entertain everyone. This made me think; is this the true meaning of drag; to entertain everyone? As the show continued the crowd was just as energetic and encouraging as before.

Then came time for the magic show and it was definitely not what I expected it to be. The magician joked about being bisexual throughout the first part of the show but always brought it back to the fact that he isn’t any less human. The show was funny and in a way seemed to have a really important message. In my opinion it said that we are all human and we should just be kind because everyone has amazing qualities despite their sexuality.

This event really showed how accepting the social life is at the City College of New York. When if came to insider and outsider language there really was not a division between the students. My friend would have been considered an outsider but she didn’t really look or feel like one. All the residents that attended were open minded and just wanted to have a good time. The residents were all willing participants in the show. They crowd was actively absorbing everything that took place and sending out positive reactions. This showed me a different side of the social life on campus because many times students are very focused on themselves and what they need to get done. I was able to see the way that students let loose and have fun and even have some fun myself. This really changed my perspective of the social life at the City College of New York.