MITiny Love Stories Vol. 2
More reader-submitted love stories from across campus
A Bean for Your Thoughts
I split green beans with my grandma. We snap off their ends, we peel off green strands, we break them into halves and thirds. Three neat piles. I’m jet-lagged, and the morning sun glows bright. I tell her about classes, about friends, and it all comes spilling out: melancholy late nights of homework, new carpeted bedroom, sunsets. Seven hundred sunsets since we last talked. She recounts our neighbors’ dramas and tragedies, distant relatives, names already shadows in my mind. We swat mosquitos and sit in the same chairs we’ve sat in for thirteen years, splitting bean after bean after bean. — Boheng
A Love to Keep
you planted kisses on my face
i never saw a sweeter garden
you intertwined your fingers with mine
i never shook nor held another hand
you showered me with love
i haven’t taken a bath
in a year. — ari peró
Family At First Sight
East Campus is a place of love. A home filled with warmth, and smiles, and chaos, and a place to be yourself. I remember walking in for the first time—full of nerves and excitement—and being instantly welcomed by the people inside. It was strange to feel so comfortable in an unfamiliar place. EC very quickly became my home, and I miss being in those halls every day. The murals and the strange decor brought me so much joy, and the community I found saved my life. Thank you East Campus, I love you. — A
Love, Hybridized
Most Americans I know tend to call all orange citruses oranges, but did you know that mandarins (flatter, typically smaller and sweeter) are naturally occurring, while oranges are hybrids of pomelos and mandarins? Furthermore, tangerines are a group of mandarin hybrids, satsumas are mandarin-pomelo hybrids, clementines are mandarin-sweet orange hybrids, grapefruits are pomelo-sweet orange backcrosses, and so on.
More than what they’re called, though, I like peeling them for you, piece by piece, so you can enjoy them bite-sized and plain with no peel and no pith. I hope you'll keep letting me do so for a long, long time🍊. — Angelina
The Friend You Deserve
For some reason, you let them walk all over you, and it is so painfully obvious to everyone except you. I was hoping it’d get better, but months after The Incident, you still think that it was all your fault and not theirs. When we talked about it in 32-123, I was gentle. But inside, I wanted to berate you for not having a backbone. Please stop putting them on a pedestal. Stand on our shoulders and elevate yourself instead. I’m begging you to be the friend that you are to other people to yourself. — Alor Sahoo