Humans of SMU is a new reoccurring project created by SMU Live reporters designed to capture the true character of SMU’s campus. Each passerby has a story to tell and often these tales go unnoticed. This project hopes to capture a snapshot of the daily lives of those on campus through quotes, photos and short stories.
“When I first started serving the special needs community through Young Life Capernaum, my goal was to positively impact their lives in some way. After having the privilege of getting to know them over a few weeks, however, I realized that they were impacting my life just as much or more than I was impacting theirs.”
“When I find free time, and I don’t know what to do, I randomly go into Dallas, whether it’s a coffee shop or a bar and sit with strangers and talk to them and just hang out. I like to meet strangers. Strangers energize me.”
“Who is the strangest person who’ve ever met?”
“There was this dude that was wearing a stuffed animal as a necklace. I approached him and it was literally a shoelace wrapped around the stuffed elephant’s neck. When I asked him why he had it, he said I grew up with it. Then we just started talking about his life and my life.”
The Humans of SMU project is based on the Humans of New York project started by Brandon Stanton in summer 2010. Other universities have followed the trend, including George Mason University, Brown University, Reed Collegeand New York University. Other cities, like Miami and Houston, have also followed suit and created their own versions.