Wandering through the Infinite by Nisha D. '21
3.5ish years of wandering MIT, squeezed into like one month
At some point during the semester, when walking to quarantine lunch in the Stud, I realized that there were a lot of cool things on the walls of the Infinite that I hadn’t actually bothered to stop and read. In a regular semester, I was always in such a rush to get to wherever I needed to be, and all of the words written on the walls of the Infinite always blurred into the periphery of my vision.
But this semester, with four easy classes and a return offer under my belt, I had a lot of extra time to wander the halls of MIT and think about better times. So, I set out to walk through every level of the Infinite and take pictures of things that caught my eye.
The Infinite, for those of you who haven’t visited MIT campus, is the very long (but not infinite) corridor that runs through the heart of campus. Think of it as the spine of MIT’s body. There’s even a Wikipedia article about it! It’s how most MIT students, in a normal year, would get to and from their classes. It’s where you’d pass by a friend you hadn’t seen in a while, and stop awkwardly in the middle of traffic to try and catch up with them, and then inevitably promise to get lunch sometime. It’s where you’d try to deduce if passerby were carrying boba, indicating the existence of a boba sale01 i miss these more than god will know in Lobby 10.
The Infinite technically has 5 levels. Here at MIT, we index from 0, so the basement is generally referred to as Infinite 0, the main hallway is referred to as Infinite 1, and every floor of the Infinite above that is indexed accordingly.
As a disclaimer, I branched out from the main hallway that we call the Infinite as well. I’m not actually sure what my logic was, but I basically went everywhere that one could reach *from* the Infinite…except MIT Nano, which was locked, and the building numbered in the 30.
I started my walkthrough with Infinite 1 because I would walk down it every day to go to the Stud for quarantine meal plan food.
A few days later, I took my scooter and headed to Infinite 0. The basement is a really fun place to scooter around because there’s normally nobody there at night and you can go as fast as you want.
On Infinite 2, I discovered a whole bunch of these major placards that feature histories of each major at MIT. I *really* want to know if one exists for every major, and if anybody has found them. This would make a great blog post.
Other cool stuff included:
I walked through Infinite 3 with my boyfriend after MITHenge on November 10th. Fun fact, Infinite 3 is a prime location to catch MITHenge.02 if you didn't watch the video - this is exactly what it sounds like; the sun lines up with the infinite just right twice a year and lights up the entire hallway
I somehow managed to procrastinate on walking through Infinite 4 until my very last night at MIT. In retrospect, I think I only found the objects I ended up taking pictures of interesting because I was drunk. I was also stumbling through the halls singing Sting’s The Last Ship03 a hall meme and very unofficial anthem, it slaps , so I truly must have appeared insane. The Infinite has great acoustics though.
After finishing my last walk through the Infinite, I went out to Killian Court in front of the Great Dome. I ended up lying down on the sidewalk, looking up at the stars, and tearfully whispered gratitude to the clear sky – gratitude for all the experiences I lived, friends I made, and dreams that I fulfilled.
After that, I stood up, wiped off my face, and took this picture.
- i miss these more than god will know back to text ↑
- if you didn't watch the video - this is exactly what it sounds like; the sun lines up with the infinite just right twice a year and lights up the entire hallway back to text ↑
- a hall meme and very unofficial anthem, it slaps back to text ↑