MITiny Love Stories Vol. 1
Reader-submitted love stories from across campus
Sabine Chu–The Tech
Photo Provided by J
Vivian Hir–The Tech
This Valentine’s Day, we asked MIT community members to tell us, in 100 words, about the people — and things — they love. Here are five of their stories, with more to come next issue!
Perfectly Imperfect
“Why do you like passion fruit so much?” my housemate asks me. “It’s so sour and it’s just seeds.” I don’t know how to respond. Can I just say I like it just because? It’s not just with fruit, but also with people — liking them for who they are, despite their imperfections. Imperfectly perfect. I love the sweet and sour juices that clash together, acting like fireworks that go off in my mouth. I savor the tiny meat on the seeds like popping boba. Never had I realized until now how something so simple can bring so much joy. — Vivian Hir
Finding Love in an Empty Classroom
I fell in love with the green-haired girl in 6.191. There wasn't recitation that day, but we both showed up. We exchanged numbers to work together on psets. After the next class, I helped her find the Cheney Room for the first time and texted her after to ask her on a date. She responded "OMG YOU'RE GAY?" and we became girlfriends on Pi Day, walking home together after campus shut down early for bad weather. That was almost two years ago, hundreds of can-I-touch-your-nose-s ago, and thousands of Pikmin Bloom flowers ago. — sarah
Questionable Advice
As the old adage goes, if you want people to like you, talk about them, not yourself. I’ve internalized this message so thoroughly that now, whenever I encounter a lull in conversation, I’m compelled to ask as many questions as I can. Knowing this, my friends humor me by thinking hard about their answers, even if the initial query is a little nonsensical. (“If you were a goose, which side of Killian would you forage on?”) Still, they always disregard the original point (to learn about them, goddamnit!) when they pause, poke my arm, and go, “what about you?”
— Sabine Chu
Once Interwoven, Now Unraveled
My UROP mentor asked for “any Course 2 friends that might also be interested.” I thought of you, with whom I’d spent awkward half-minute silences in the Vassar elevator; long hours asking for 6.100A help; trips to Maseeh late night not ever for the food. You, my gateway drug to another: Cafe 472 froyo, reserved for the coldest nights. Our time wove into furtive glances stolen across the lab bench, psets finished in heinously fishbowl-like study rooms, nights spent with you holding me when I couldn’t bear myself.
MIT is different without you now.
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MIT without you.
MIT is different now. — J
It Was Virtually Fate
We met in the most MIT way possible: through a mailing list. It was fall of freshman year, all of us stuck at home because of COVID quarantine. It was in one of those mind-numbing Zoom classes that I saw him, the cute guy in the lower-left corner. I've never been the boldest guy, but something about his name seemed familiar. I searched my email, and there it was: both of us subscribed to the same queer first-year mailing list. With that starting signal, I sent him a message, and Zoom calls became lasting love. — Emilio