A head-and-shoulders illustrated portrait of Kayode. He is smiling with his mouth closed, has medium dark skin, and short curly hair. He's wearing a light blue collared shirt.

Crusty White Dogs Appreciation Post by Kayode D. '27

💕 🐕 💕 🐕💕

The other day, I was in a meeting for Cru Worship team, and the icebreaker was to share what pet you’d want to have if you could have ANYTHING as a pet. I thought for like ten seconds and decided: Crusty White Dog.

i will come back and put more crusty dogs after i eat free food from ceri
i will come back and put more crusty dogs after i eat free food from ceri

I LOVE crusty white dogs. So. Much. I love the way that they never stop shaking. I love the way that they bark at their own shadow and are afraid of the front door. I love the way that they can barely see and bump into everything. I love the way their short stubby legs bounce when they walk. I love the way that they have short memories and just move in the moment. And how they just stare at you. And now they have like fifteen thoughts total per day. They’re so small and so adorable and I want one. AND I love that people think that they’re stupid. That’s fine, you don’t have to have one. I will have a crusty white dog.

So we’re going around sharing, and the first person says that they would have a dragon. And I looked at her and my dnd-comic-book-mind saw her with her big massive dragon and I looked down at my pitiful adorable little white crusty dog, and I thought…”Should I pick something like a dragon? Or at least something fantastical, like I can have ANYTHING as a pet, and I chose something I can already have as a pet.”

Then, the next guy went. He said he would want a Lion. Also an epic animal. And again I worried that mine wasn’t cool enough. How would my crusty white dog stack up against Mufasa and Eragon? Hmmm…

Segway! I have an announcement [that I am choosing to make during a crusty-white-dog blog]: I am taking a fifth year. Because of a major change, and me failing/dropping classes last semester, I will HAVE to do at least a ninth semester. Which kinda bites. It’s not that uncommon, but it’s also not something you hear about a lot. My classmates will be graduating in a year and a half and I’ll be a SUPER SENIOR [😭😭😭]. I was distraught by this for like, a week, and then I met with my UROP advisor and she said “Oh no! You get to spend another year at one of the top schools on the planet.” and I realized that I was mis-framing this experience. If I compare myself and my journey to the paths of other students, I will always feel behind. I am the only student at MIT who is doing robotics and large-scale social card games. And that’s a blogger and a radio host and plays drums and is a leader in Cru. So I shouldn’t compare myself to others when we’re all on our own journeys.

In the same way, I cannot and should not compare my amazing adorable awesome dog to their dragons and lions!! Maybe my path and my animal doesn’t look like there’s, but it is still amazing. Yeah. That’s the moral of this story.

Ok bye bye I wrote this to get free food.