Ode to the Institute by Ana V. '15

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I decided to write MIT a poem. It’s not Tennyson or anything, but…

Oh MIT, OH MIT
Many are the reasons why
You mean so much to me.

Poor soul, poor soul
You’re often scorned
As students pull their hair,
proclaiming “IHTFP!”
With your high ceilings, and old marbled floor,
You house the echoes of students’ footsteps
As we diligently shuffle along the infinite corridor.

I hear us talking of long hours
Projects, Psets, Parties, Psets, Performances, Plays,
I see people hosed, tired, still walking along
Going about just another day.

While we may sometimes stop to question
Why we take so many classes and why we push ourselves so hard,
Or to sigh as we decipher dusty, bone-colored scrawlings
on the classrooms’ many walls.

Still you see us softly smiling and our eyes
Probing with a questioning light
We rub our chins at topics posed,
wondering curiosity being,
without doubt, the nature of our souls.

Smiles and joy are also spread
As gentlemen burst through lecture halls’ doors
Proclaiming that they have a message of love to sing
This is true–it’s not a lore!

Oh MIT.

You offer us experience,
The realization that if we act now,
we can contribute to the world.
You house us in a place where we can be inspired and taught
By one another.

You provide us with a home– an often-decorated dome
(by the work of florey elves*)
You are, without question, a place that’s so much larger than ourselves.

*hackers–my apologies for the horrid made-up name, but in my defense, almost nothing else rhymes with ourselves!*

( Many thanks to Lourdes ’15 [who filmed it] Kirsten [my TA] and of course the heavenly voices of the Logs for the video.)   :)