As just about everyone may know, last weekend Stevens had hosted their 9th Annual Castle Point Anime Convention, or CPAC for short. Being a freshman, I had only heard of what would be in store for the weekend festivities. Needless to say, no matter how much I had heard from upperclassmen, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. On Saturday morning, the convention had begun. I just so happened to be walking from the Edwin A. Stevens building and I saw the line for check in had gone all the way from Babbio, down past McLean and toward the park just outside of campus. I was shocked. It was interesting, however, to see the different costumes that everyone had on for the event.
I wasn’t very familiar with the different characters that they were portraying, but all of the costumes were very well made and unique. As the day progressed, the campus was buzzing with energy and full of people who had come just for the convention. Even at Pierce there were many people who had arrived for the convention, and it was interesting to see the many different personalities and stories being told by the CPAC guests.
By the end of the day, the amount of people on campus was winding down. I was excited to see what was in store for the next day of CPAC, and at that time I had not known the sheer number of people I would see the next day.
By noon on Sunday, I had left my dorm ready to go to the dining hall for food. When I stepped outside, I was shocked at the thousands of people I saw in lines three to four people wide going from Canavan and down the hill toward Babbio. There were at least three to four thousand people on campus, more people than students at Stevens. I spent the day walking through the crowds observing the goings-on of the convention and took refuge in the library to do homework when I too overwhelmed by the crowds. Overall it was a great experience to see and experience something different than I ever had before, and I look forward to seeing what next year has in store.
