It is a Friday afternoon in the Lamourous House. Mr. Wibbenmeyer is grilling hot dogs. Captain Jimmy Dunaway is asking trivia questions to mentor groups. There is one thing that is missing in all the houses. There is a big discrepancy between the number of underclassmen and upperclassmen. Many of the upperclassmen have left for the day already to get an early start to their weekend.

I am a huge fan of the house meetings that are put on by all the houses on a Friday every other month. They are always fun, and you can bond with your classmates in ways you never thought you would. This is why it is so confusing to me that so many people, mostly juniors and seniors, would decide to leave before them.

House meetings are one of my favorite things that I have done in my time at Chaminade. I have great memories of playing mushball, fleet football, and throwing dodgeballs at people while they are trying to get through an obstacle course. While some meetings are better than others, they are just about always fun when you are not forced to go down into the Athletictron boiler room for an hour with a bunch of guys from Meyer House.

I have only missed one house meeting in my time at Chaminade, as I did have a good reason for this. My family was traveling down to Springfield, MO, to visit my brother who is in college. He plays baseball and was pitching that Friday night. I had to drive home to leave before the house meeting or else I would not have been able to see my brother that night.

I do see why some people would leave before house meetings without excuses. Some of them have away sports games that are far away and have to leave early. Some might have a doctor’s appointment that they cannot miss. But then, there are always some people who leave before the meeting for the sole reason that they are not interested in attending.

There is not an easy way for the Deans or anybody to make them more exciting for the upperclassmen. The only thing that I could see is separating the middle school from the high school, but this would get rid of some of the connections people can make at these house meetings.

There are also many benefits to house meetings outside of fun. They are a great way to find out things about other people that you would not normally know. House meetings are also a great way to build relationships and connections with your friends and classmates. You can do these by just going up to people and doing the activities with them.

I think that one way to make this less of an issue at Chaminade would be to put an administrator by each of the parking lots, waiting to see if there is anybody trying to leave without an excuse. This would solve the problem as people would not be able to skip the meetings and would actually be able to meet some people that they have not met before.

I think that house meetings at Chaminade are great things. I think that they are a great way to have some fun with your classmates and other students. I would like for students, if able, to stay for the house meeting. I think that they would have a great time and it would maybe inspire them to stay for more.