By Jack Murphy
I met the president. No, let me rephrase. I had a memorable five-minute conversation with the former Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush and his wife, talking about how great SMU’s students were, my red hair, and our favorite topic: SMU Basketball. But let me back up, you may be wondering how I met the president? A few days ago I was chosen to represent the SMU student body to attend “Dining with Decision Makers,” a dinner held for the SMU Board of Trustees and for students to connect with them. The Board is doing a phenomenal job with our university from completing the new Residential Commons in the southeast quad to hiring the great Larry Brown as our head basketball coach. In attendance to this event was former First Lady Laura Bush, one of our Trustee members, and her “plus one” President Bush. After finishing the George W. Bush Presidential Center, students are used to seeing the presidential couple around campus, but this was my opportunity to officially meet them. After the dinner I walked up to George but before I could introduce myself, he exclaims “Big Red!” Taken aback, I began to chat with him about SMU’s basketball season and the game that previous night where he spotted me in the halftime free-throw competition (being 6’3” with red hair, I’m not hard to miss). We ended our conversation with a few good laughs and his remarks on our amazing student body of leaders and world changers. That night I left the dinner looking back to the day I first arrived at SMU as a student less than two years ago. With all the things SMU has allowed me to accomplish, I cannot be more excited for what is about to happen in the next two years.