Hey class of 2011, sorry for the long absence. It has come to my attention that those of you who have been reading my past few columns seem to have the idea that I have this great negative view of SMU. So very briefly I would like to correct this. I LOVE SMU. I could not think of anywhere else I would rather be. In my articles, I like to comment on my observations. So, to anyone who might think that all I do is bash this school, I would like to apologize for the misunderstanding. This brings us to the observation I have made about the class of 2011 recently, and that would have to be that I believe we have the strongest sense of unity than any of the other classes. This isn’t to say the other classes here at SMU completely lack unity. Simply from what I have seen, our class shows an amazing level of camaraderie. In many cases this may be because of our need to survive those difficult classes, since they force us to join up with our classmates in order to study for tests and complete assignments. Or it could be because of the fact we have left behind all our old friends and thus feel an unrelenting desire to make new ones. Both of these are things the other classes here at SMU would have been subject to and thus would have similar senses of unity. However, the class of 2011 has something innate within the individuals of the class it makes it such a cohesive group of people. Like many other articles, my main inspiration for this is my own personal experience. To date, I cannot think of a single member of the 2011 class who I have met (and, believe me, there are a lot of us!) and have not felt like I could be friends with him or her. I can say with full confidence that you could randomly select a group of students from the class of 2011, all of whom don’t know each other, and they would all end up as close friends. I think the shining moment of this amazing trait came a few weeks ago when I was walking to the library to return a DVD. While passing Meadows, two girls, one who was in my English class but I had only briefly talked to, stopped me and asked if I was the one writing the freshmen columns. The three of us stood and talked for a few minutes, to which they both expressed their opinions of the article and how they thought I was simply bashing SMU. What impressed me the most was their ability to express their opinions of my article in such a friendly and presentable manner, and, despite the fact they disliked it completely, I never once felt like I needed to be on the defensive end during the entire conversation. In fact, I have gone on to be better friends with the girl from my English class. So maybe this is the key to the greatness that is the class of 2011: our level of tolerance. A common trend that is seen in American society is the growing tolerance in younger generations, and our class is a perfect example of this. I have yet to meet a member of my class who has been outwardly aggressive or overtly rude. But at the same time, I have met many people who may share different ideas than I. And the icing on the cake here, folks, is I am still great friends with these people. Some of you might not think this is that amazing of a characteristic, but to you I ask that you think back to your time in high school or even your group of friends now. How many of you can say that at least your friends have a completely opposite stance on an issue than you do? I can already tell you that most people can’t. The characteristic seems to always be that you surround yourself by people who think the way you do and this is evident in all the other classes here at SMU. Yet the class of 2011 truly breaks this mold, which is something that goes on at a level that makes it unnoticed by a lot of people, even the class of 2011.With the Thanksgiving holiday at our doorstep, we are all getting ready to take that nice break from the day-to-day activities of school. Even though the moment we come back, we must jump right into turning in essays and prepping for finals. So in the spirit of the holidays, I would just like to say: Thanks class of 2011, for one kick-ass start to college life at SMU.

About the writer:James Lucente is a first-year double major in international relations and broadcast journalism. He can be reached at [email protected].