Elli Yeager

Summer is around the corner. It’s 93 degrees on the SMU campus and just a hint of the summer humidity that will soon come.  The campus lawns are decorated with students tanning in the sun, or throwing a frisbee, or playing catch with their dogs. Sitting on the “Dallas Hall Lawn,” I soak up a little sun myself and breathe a sigh of relief that we are so, so, so close to being done. 

I’m excited to be heading back to my childhood home in California to work with the horses all summer. I’m excited not to pick up a school book for a minute. I’m excited to start my summer adventure. 

I know that I will be sad to leave my friends and my apartment. I will definitely miss Nobu, Restoration Hardware, and Rooftop. But, summer fever has set in and I think most SMU students can agree that we are a little over school right now. I am sure we will be ready to come back in the fall for football season, but for now we will daydream of summer in the quiet moments before finals week. 

It is getting down to the wire for Sophomores. We have flirted with different majors and minors, taken classes we thought we would hate and loved and classes we thought we would love and hated. Now, it is time to make the final decisions and send in the applications for the different schools. It is almost as stressful as completing college applications, as we try to make ourselves look as good as possible and wish once or twice we had studied just a little harder for that one final. 

After many texts and emails to my advisor, I have finally chosen the path I want to go down for the next two years. There are a lot of thoughts that go into this choice. What do I want to do with my life? What major will best prepare me for where I want to go, or where I think I want to do? Do I want to go to grad school? Will I be able to get an internship through the department, or a job after I graduate? 

Often there are more questions than answers at this point of our college education, so all we can do is take the plunge, with our eyes open or shut. 

I can’t push pause on school. 

This week my main competition horse is leaving our training program and heading to a different state where he will start his next career path as a breeding stallion. Most people don’t realize that horses are athletes also. This horse, think of him as the star quarterback on a Division I football team, has a cult following and impressive stats. 

He’s retiring in style, at a 5 star resort for celebrity-type horses. He will have room service, high thread count bedding, plenty of outdoor entertainment, and a different girl on his arm every week. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? 

I wanted to be there to give him the send-off he deserved. To feed him a carrot and wish him well in his next endeavor, but I cannot push pause on school. So I will have to make do with Facetime and videos, and visit during the next school break when I am sure he will have established his place as King of the Hill.  

It’s a catch 22. I should be at home, studying, catching up on homework, on emails, on life. But, then I have social obligations. Every college student feels the pressure to be part of things- make an appearance here, stop by there, take someone to dinner, pick another person up at the airport, the list is endless.

I know it sounds spoiled and “poor me,” but sometimes all I want to do is sit in silence, in my apartment and watch television. Wednesday is the night to go out for SMU students, but 5:30 am workouts on Thursday usually have me skipping Wednesday night festivities (and in general provide a pretty good excuse to friends as to why I am not throwing on my party dress after my last class).

Ding- ding- ding- ding. The group chat will not be silenced. This Wednesday night is a special occasion, a birthday party for a teammate, and no excuse will get me out of this social event.

 I’ve always been told that college is a time for learning time management and finding out my strengths and weaknesses. My solution is to throw on that party dress, sing happy birthday, and sleep in the car in order to get in some extra ZZZZ’s before workouts. Stay tuned to see how this plan turns out in the end…

Morning 🙁

4:00 wake up and walk dog

4:30: brush teeth, wash face, get dressed, ect and head to campus

5:00 team workout

6:00 treatment with athletic trainer

7:00 find parking 

8:00 Advertising

9:30: PRW

Lunch break 🙂

12:00: Parking

12:30: Advertising

2:00 Religion

3:30 Spanish & lab

6:00 Finally back to my apartment

6:30 IN BED 💤

College is like a cesspool for germs, bateria and mystery illnesses that we like to call “frat flu” or “peruna plague.”   Every day in class people are constantly sniffling, coughing or blowing their nose, and then making sure everyone near then knows that they don’t have COVID. 

Now everyone is sick for a different reason- some party too much, some stay up too late studying, and some just get the short end of the stick. I am someone who got the short end of the stick, but in all fairness I was bound to get sick after traveling every weekend with thirty-one people from the equestrian team on one of the most grueling spring schedules any coach has ever seen.

 I knew immediately when I woke up Tuesday morning that I was gonna be sick. I walked over to the health center after my first two classes and basically begged for a strep throat test. Both nurses repeatedly told me over and over that I did not have strep. Low and behold, 30 minutes later, my test came back positive. Take that ladies!

By this point my throat was so swollen you could see the lymph nodes on my neck without even looking in my mouth. Now, here I am 12 hours later having not eaten or had anything to drink since then. But, don’t worry anyone who is reading this, I am now in bed and not in the chair next to you, coughing and sneezing. 

Student life at SMU is very weather dependent. Once the weather hits 70 degrees everyone wants to be outside enjoying the mellow Dallas sunshine. 

Girls at the tanning pool are working on their tan, guys working out outside getting ready for summer or spring break. Girls and guys are at the sand volleyball courts having fun and burning some energy. The frat house backyards play different types of music as the guys play die or pickup games of basketball. 

Just walking across campus has a different vibe. A significant change of mood now that the gray and rainy days seem farther and farther away and the joy of summer and endless sunshine is just on the horizon. Students bounce to and from class, enjoying the short breaks by sitting on the lawn and longer breaks by sneaking out to the lakes for a swim. 

Instead of Fortnite and Call of Duty, group texts organize boating and pool parties. Spring semester at SMU is why everyone chose SMU, the weather is perfect and there are so many different activities on and off campus to explore and entertain ourselves with. 

Student athletes have some of the hardest schedules on the planet. We have practice, workouts, meets, meetings, video review – repeat. 

To illustrate: this last weekend we had SEC’s and we had three back-to-back road meets. We usually have a day to recharge and catch up on life and school before we start all over again, but this time we did not have a next day off because we have Baylor on Thursday. 

Our coach pulled us out of the ECAC conference so we could compete against the bigger teams. This way when we go to Nationals in the spring, we know their horses and the team’s strengths and weaknesses. This is a smart move for sure, but also really taxing on us with four all-day meets in a 10 day period. 

And in case it sounds like I’m whining (which I admittedly am just a tiny bit), equestrian meets start at 7:00 am with the first team rider in the ring at 10:00. Then we have five riders from both teams in each of the four disciplines: jumping, flat, reining, and horsemanship.  The last rider is in the ring at 3:00 and then we have the awards ceremony and MVP awards before we finally get back on the bus and head to the airport. 

On top of that it’s midterm season, so we have a copious amount of tests and assignments due.  All in a student athlete’s days work.