Everything I Miss and Don’t Miss About MIT by Jenny X. '13

If you know anything about MIT, you know that there’s a lot of numbers involved.

You may know that most buildings are known better by their numbers than anything else, that the courses of study span between 1 and 24 (but not 13, 19, or 23) n 1 and 24 (but not 13), that important MIT milestones often have something to do with 3.14159…

7 years ago on 3/14 around 2 p.m. I found out I got into MIT.

And now, after all these years, that auspicious number still hovers over me.

It’s Pi Reunion weekend baby!!!

Some people may sneer at how MIT folks seem married to their Brass Rats or gush about the beaver being “nature’s engineer” or attend a reunion named after Pi (that is a class reunion 3.14-ish years after graduation)—and yes, I’ve witnessed these responses in the wild since leaving school—but I love, love, love all these quirks and traditions.

And to celebrate–and mentally prepare for this frenzied weekend (activities include hanging by the pool at the Cosmpolitan, Red Rock Canyon hiking excursions, clubbing, brunches, getting together with both the closest of friends and familiar faces you still haven’t learned the names of, yet)–I’m just going to sit here a while and indulge in nostalgia…

What I miss about MIT:

• Making two packs of Shin ramen at midnight and feeling like it’s an okay the best way to do life
• Chatting up classmates around late night architecture studio with an ease that only comes with knowing an all-nighter was inevitable
• Taking the commiseration onto Gchat—“i have nothing!!!” – “no! iiiiiii have nothinggggggg”
• #Treatyoself snacks at La Verdes at 3 am and trying to make a pack of four Vienna Fingers cookies last all the way to Burton Conner
• All-you-can-eat sushi at Yamato in Brighton for $25 a person
• Scoring guest meal passes and eating with friends in Maseeh/McCormick/dorms with meal plans
• The kind of pride that comes from knowing how to navigate the tunnels and a silent joy when it’s raining so hard that you have to take them
• A non-organized nighttime roof adventure that feels like a dream now but definitely happened
• Waking up to a Cinco de Mayo band playing on Memorial Drive after getting drunk for the first and only time in my life
• Watching leaves change on Mem Drive
• Watching snow accumulate on Mem Drive
• A dorm window facing Mem Drive and the Charles River and the Boston skyline is everything
• The “Welcome MIT Families” banner that reliably returns every CPW and Family Weekend (is that still around?)
• The tucked away desk with natural light, outlets, and total privacy in Rotch Library
• Reserving a conference room at McCormick for working hard/hardly working with all my lady friends

What I don’t miss:

• Working late at Steam cafe and seeing a giant mouse/rat??? scurry by
• Declaring war on teeny tiny mice in my dorm suite, the kind that can get under the door and travel between rooms with no problem (The weeks-long operation included duct-taping the bottom of my doors and gaps around closets, sprinkling my room with cotton balls soaked with peppermint oil, and enlisting my kind and capable suitemate to dispose of a dead mouse found in my room)
• The uncomfortable, often way delayed Megabus and Bolt rides from NY to Boston before and after the holidays
• Getting a zillion mysterious bruises in the process of attending a jampacked Macklemore spring concert
• Thinking I’m going to do pretty well in a class and watching that hope dissipate
• The sluggish behemoth that is the Building 7 elevator
• The internal turmoil of feeling stupid for not running to catch the 1 bus in fear of looking stupid
• The MacGregor wind tunnel

Cheers to all the little things.