As the wind swept through Dallas Hall Lawn Thursday, March 28. Senior Hanan Muzemil wheeled to the front of SMU’s flagpole with her cooler full of treats, her music blaring across campus, and Polaroid in tow.
10 Things I Love About You, the event that consisted of flavored Italian ice, captured moments, and whiteboards with words from the soul gave students a break from studying and stressing about upcoming tests and papers. Instead, they turned their focus from worrying about the outside to loving the things on the inside.
“I think it’s really nice, a way to take a break and to focus on yourself,” Senior Kavita Liyande shared. “I think the confidence you get from loving yourself can get you through a lot of trials.”
Students wrote their favorite feature about themselves and then held that feature scribbled on the whiteboard up to beam for a photo. The moment trapped in time even stepped out of the digital world, as students also took Polaroid copies.
“I feel like once I first got here, I really didn’t know what I was going to say,” Communications major Rodney Richmond said. “But then something hit me and it kind of like resonated deep inside.”
Students walked away not just with smiles and photos, but also the knowledge of the power of self-affirmations.
“Doing self-affirmations has helped me in the long run and helped me bring myself up,” Health Ambassador Muzemil said. “It’s been scientifically proven to help college students and even improve their GPAs and overall mental health in addition to therapy and treatment.”
The Health Ambassador was determined to give her selfless effort to result in others self-filled love.
Students were encouraged and enlightened. When I asked on a 1-10 scale about their opinion on the importance of self-love after the event, the answer remained the same: Ten.
“I think it’s really important for everyone to know and remember that there’s stuff you love about yourself,” Freshman Kennedi Watts said.
However, this proclamation of self-love appeared to be easier said than done in the lives of many students here at SMU. Self-love wasn’t something that came naturally; it took a bit of work.
“I kind of struggled through it through middle school and elementary but in high school, I was able to find my true inner beauty,” Political Science major, Bri Tollie said. “It made me feel happier. It made me feel more confident about walking outside. It just made me feel more comfortable about who I am.”
The confidence many Mustangs found as a result of looking in the mirror and choosing to love that person they saw staring back at them was undeniable.
“It’s just learning that although I look at other people and I realize that they have things that I’d like on my body, I realize that not everybody’s perfect and that I’m great the way I am,” Junior Avery Wacker grinned.
