Serendipity

Amidst the midterm haze, the sweatpant craze, the Tisch cookies and the late night study rookies, we all are secretly searching for that something to get us through the day. Whether it’s bumping into that person you hooked up with on Saturday night, making eye contact with that Zach Galafianakis look-alike you’ve been crushing on or simply having a beautiful stranger hold the door open for you -- we’re all holding out for that brief moment of serendipity to lighten our day. In case you don’t already think Rebecca and I are unhealthily attached, let me tell you a story about our simultaneous serendipities. It was a rainy evening in Harvard Square, and Rebecca and I were in Staples -- where all great love stories begin. Hers was on the top floor, where she met a very hunky Harvard boy while waiting in line to pay for a mechanical pencil. Meanwhile, I was downstairs in the basement, searching for the perfect 2014 planner -- and that’s when my serendipity happened. While I was weighing the benefits of a moleskin notebook, a man -- mid 50s I’d say -- with long shaggy hair, a slightly greasy grey t-shirt and a startling odor of beer and skunk came up to me. He stared down at my shoes and asked, “Are your shoes from India?” As I nodded cautiously, he gazed deep into my eyes, gave me a sassy wink and said, “That must be why they’re so beautiful. All beautiful things come from India, like you.” And that’s when love happened.

Dear NYSD, I'm in love with my econ professor, it's bad and I know it, advice?

Pooja: I suggest you calculate the opportunity cost of this love, and then decide if it’s worth it. I know the low supply and high demand of attractive Tufts folk can leave one feeling a shortage of love, but you can’t just give up and subsidize. With scarcity comes trade-offs, and its time to take some calculated risks in this love game theory. Life is not perfect…ly competitive, so use your leverage and monopolize the love market. (I think my bad jokes went into surplus, I apologize.)

Dear NYSD: How do I get a girl I’ve never spoken to before to notice me?

Rebecca: Ahh the Tufts crush! I get chills just thinking of mine. Sometimes, we are not as lucky as Pooja and do not have an unlimited supply of Indian shoes to catch the eyes of our suitors. Clearly, the only way to get her attention is to dress in bright colors. If you look like an air traffic controller, who can ignore you? I joke, but as I have said before, I live my life by two mottos: Positive thinking yields positive results and most of life is just showing up. So with a positive attitude, I encourage you to just show up, say yes when you want to say no and go to places you think that your crush will be. I am not saying stalk them, but sometimes a passing smile down Pro-Row is more than enough to break the ice. My Tufts crush and I first talked when he asked me about my ID card in the Commons. You never know when the stars will align. (Even if it is while you are waiting to pick up three Caesar snack wraps because midterms, duh.)

That’s all we have for now. I hope that you hungrily wait for our next article as we hungrily wait for the reopening of the Commons, because Caesar snack wraps, duh. Until then, keep submitting questions to our Google Doc. We aim to answer everything you send us, even if it is “Does Anna hate Chipotle?" This question was submitted twice so it must be urgent. We’d like to argue that in a free market, competition is encouraged, so Anna must love Chipotle. So love us like Anna loves Chipotle and send us more queries.