With strums on a pastel purple ukulele named Carrie came the voice of Christina Smith ’19, who sang Sara Bareilles’ “She Used to Be Mine” at the most recent open mic night at The Lyon’s Den. Christina can be found taking this stage regularly, having performed medleys, songs from Hamilton and participating in rap battles.

Christina chose this particular song because it is her favorite from the new musical Waitress. “’She Used to Be Mine’ was particularly powerful to me because I feel really close to it,” she said. “Being a human is just hard sometimes, and I feel that this song really speaks to that. When I sang it, I felt like I was opening up.”

Christina backed her vocals with her ukulele, an instrument she picked up last summer. “The ukulele seemed simpler than guitar since it only has four strings, so I figured I’d give it a try,” she said. “My brother had one, so I would borrow it often, take it up to my room and not-so-subtly learn simple chords and tunes. That led him to convince my mom to get me my own ukulele for my birthday.”

Since then, Christina has begun performing at the open mic nights. “It’s a great way to de-stress,” she says. “It’s a really cool environment and it’s always exciting to see what people feel like sharing in the moment.”

In addition to performing in the Den, Christina can be seen performing with Tap Out Loud and is also a part of the Film Club and the Arts Events Staff. She intends to double major in Film and New Media Studies and Creative Writing and Literature.

In her next year at Wheaton, Christina will continue singing and playing her ukulele. “I plan on continuing to sing obnoxiously loud in my room (hoping my roommate won’t mind next semester),” she said.