Off the beaten path

Two paths diverged at SMU and I, I took the path less traveled and that has made all of the difference…

As I look back on my college career I pride myself on the fact that I took that less-traveled path rather than the obvious one. At first I was commended and told that I would be seen as someone who actually had an identity instead of a label. But I learned quickly that this wasn’t always the case. However, I never once regretted any decisions I made at SMU.

I’ve met and made friends with some amazing people – people that I have felt I can be 100 percent of myself around. Until recently, I found myself pondering exactly how I had “found myself” and what consituted myself as a new person. I realized that it doesn’t happen overnight and however much or little my appearance has changed since my first year, it’s basically irrelevant because appearances can be deceiving, especially here.

I can’t remember the exact moment when I realized that I would be OK here. I’ve lived through the tough but good professors. I’ve lived through the tough and bad professors. I’ve lived through broken glass and broken hearts, power failures and failures of a different kind – and managed to survive the college experience. Beginning with Margarita Mondays and recovering with Mimosas on Sundays and those nights where we’d literally spend all night at the library enduring the middle of the night exhaustion and anxiety with only KMX and prayers.

I look at SMU with its perfectly segmented, arranged and aesthetically pleasing sidewalks through and around campus tending to lead you nowhere, and sometimes it’s nice to take the grassy route. So I urge the future inhabitants of SMU to seize the day, live for the moment and have no regrets. Oh and a word of advice – you know the old saying “If there was no such thing as the last minute, nothing would ever get done?” Well, it’s a lie. Procrastination may get something done, but its not going to get you good grades.

I was wondering what the next step in my life would be and I most recently decided that I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m in no particular rush to hang out in those cubicles since I know I’ll be there for quite some time. So, like I’ve done so many other times in my life, I’m going to play it by ear and let fate do its thing. (I know the word cliche; come to mind for some of you, but the English and journalism departments haven’t let me do that for awhile.) I do know that SMU has prepared me for the real world.

I’d like to thank the people who stocked the fridge with Diet Coke to keep me going, lent a shoulder to cry on when things got tough and an ear when I needed to vent. I find myself wanting to share my specific position as I bid farewell to the SMU campus and community and The Daily Campus. What a long and strange trip it’s been.