Dinner With Goobers by Elizabeth Choe '13

Growing up, the thing that my parents were the most strict about wasn’t my grades, my afterschool activities, or other ways of bringing honor to the family… but eating dinner all together as a family. I wasn’t even allowed to read, which is lame because my little brother is allowed to watch important football games (read: all of them) during dinner. But come to think of it, the only thing lamer* than my parents’ rule against books at the dinner table is the fact that I was so stinkin’ nerdtastic that I wanted to read at the dinner table…

I DIGRESS.

The point is, as many days as I begrudgingly dragged myself to the dinner table like a snotty teenager, not having family dinner time was one of the things that made the transition to college the hardest for me (I know. I am a GIANT BABY.). Lucky for me, I have a different sort of family with my fellow Simmons sponge-dwellers, and when the clock strikes a nice and early 5:30 PM (because we actually have the lifestyle habits of people four times our age), we round up the gang (I really need a cowbell for this…) and mosey on down to ye olde Simmons dining hall.

Okay, so dinner at MIT looks a little different from dinner at home. Look Mom, we are playing CHESS at the dinner table! Watchin’ YouTube videos on Luke’s phone at the dinner table! Eatin’ Lucky Charms after dinner! Oooh yeah we are rebels!*

Frame one: We joined up with some former 3AB dwellers (Isaac and Drew from freshman year, Luke from sophomore year) to catch up on life (read: catch up on YouTub videos).

Frame two: Luke’s staple dessert is Rice Krispies mixed with Lucky Charms.

Frame three: This was during Sasha and Sneha’s chess phase, which lasted all of one week. At any other university, people whipping out a chess board during dinner would probably get us socially shunned for life, but here, we had a crowd going to watch and join in. We are really cool like that. MIT OOH YEAH!

Frame one: Like I said, CHESS IS INTENSE. (As a side note, learning how to play chess is still on the to-list, along with learning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, watching an entire episode of Star Trek, and going to a Dropkick Murphys concert on my birthday.)

Frame two: Justin, Maita, and Steven doing… I don’t really know what they were doing.

Frame three: So apparently tomorrow my taste buds are gonna be dazzled, y’all!

*I love you, Mom.