In a recent discovery it came to my attention that the vast majority of SMU students are completely clueless about the SMU current events that do not involve greek life, which is, frankly, very sad.
Even though Dallas is a fairly conservative city, we have fabulous art at our local museums and galleries, not to mention at our own school. In the Meadows Museum we have a Picasso cubism collage, among many other works of some of the 20th Century’s most fabulous artists and just last week the Pollack Gallery in Hughes-Trigg (which a majority of you don’t know about) held a show of the late Jean-Michele Basquiat. While Basquiat may not be familiar to all of you, Andy Warhol is. Basquiat was Warhol’s partner in crime during the 80s until he died of a heroin overdose, not to mention that he dated Madonna. Perhaps it is not the students’ fault for not knowing about all that this campus has to offer. I have never once seen an advertisement for the Pollack Gallery.
Tucked away next to the Mane Desk and directly next to the Game Room, the gallery gets no love. For a school that has million dollar endowments for the arts, it does a poor job of getting press for the gallery shows. It seems like relying on the possibility that a student might stop in at the gallery is bound to be a complete failure.
One of the most spectacular things about going away to college is the time to grow and find yourself. For those of us lucky enough to be located in a major metropolitan city, not only do we have the chance to find ourselves, but we have the opportunity to discover more than we can imagine.
We all allow ourselves to fall into a rut, and many of us fail to push down the walls of our comfort zone. Right now, someone is complaining about how hard their life is and how much work they have or how much they don’t want to go to work today. We all take advantage of our lives. No matter how much we complain, just remember that it could always be worse: you could be stuck in a country where all the buildings that surround you are being bombed. You could be without freedom.
Time is precious so carpe diem. Do something you wouldn’t normally do. Experience things that scare you; things that you wouldn’t normally do. Learn more about cultures that are not your own. Be bold.
SMU is a place where people seem to walk around like zombies, following the person in front of them. Remember, college is a time to find yourself and learn more about the world, so take advantage of it because you never know when the opportunity will be lost.
