By Liz Crowell
It’s easy to become comfortable and stuck with the same routine, the same buildings on campus and the same group of people once you get settled in college. At SMU we have two prominent sides of the boulevard; on the West side you have the renowned Meadows School of the Arts while on the East side the equally as renowned Cox School of Business. Sounds a little bit like the Sharks and the Jets from “West Side Story” if you will. Both schools demand a lot from its students especially outside of the classroom, so it’s sometimes hard to get the time to see the other side.
As an accounting major at SMU I find myself spending most of my days at either Einstein’s or in the Business Library. I’ve lost count of how many group projects I’ve had for classes and how many 10-Ks I’ve had to read as well. I love the Cox school of business; the people I’ve met in it, the opportunities it has afforded me and the necessary skills it has taught me to be able to enter the business world. But every now and then I like to dip my feet into unchartered waters, to come up from the Cox basement and see what’s going on with those Jets on the other side of the Boulevard. Thankfully, I’ve been able to do just that with the connections I’ve made at SMU and the events those individuals put on.
At SMU, the theatre department performs a couple of mainstage shows each semester that draw in audiences from all over. After I’ve finished reading a few 10-Ks, I’ve found my way at Meadows watching mainstage shows such as The Women, Black Snow, Middletown and countless others. Outside the mainstage selection of shows, students of the theatre department have made SMUST a force to be reckoned with. SMUST, or SMU Student Theatre, is an organization that puts on many shows throughout the semester that are written and directed by SMU students, starring SMU students. Personally, I think these shows are much more entertaining and memorable as they’re a bit of a grassroots movement. I see my friends writing and acting out the most amazing scripts and stories weekly and the best part, it’s free to attend. Past shows have included shows like “Am I Blue”, “Frack” and “Shakespeare’s Star Wars” just to name a few. I love that SMU allows me to work at a Bloomberg Terminal for hours and then watch free theatre performances all in the same night.
I’ve seen both sides of the boulevard, I’ve been a Shark during the day and a Jet at night. As I finish up my first semester of senior year I encourage everyone entering college in the next year to see what the other side is like and leave that comfort zone you create for yourself at school from time to time. Thankfully at SMU, due to its size and driven student population it’s not hard to create both a comfort zone and get out of it whenever you want.