Looking at restaurant menus and thinking “Too many options.”
LOOKING AT RESTAURANT MENUS AND THINKING “TOO MANY OPTIONS.” Follow us for more reflections on the unique journey of an Ivy Leaguer.
Remember those days? The familiar hum of the dining hall, the rush between classes for a quick bite, or the strategic late-night sprint for a midnight snack before an all-nighter. Back then, "too many options" was rarely the problem. It was more about the daily lottery: would the stir-fry station deliver today? Was the notoriously elusive good pizza finally available? Our cafeteria chronicles were less about culinary exploration and more about fuel, camaraderie, and sometimes, simply survival. These shared meals, the occasional kitchen mishap, the desperate search for coffee, became the backdrop to our most intense academic pursuits and our deepest friendships. The menu might have been predictable, but the conversations, the debates, the spontaneous laughter, were anything but.
Now, years later for some of us, staring at a twenty-page restaurant menu can feel like another existential crisis. Suddenly, the comforting predictability of our university dining halls takes on a new glow. We navigate the complexities of adulthood, the endless choices, and sometimes find ourselves yearning for the days when our biggest culinary decision was "pasta or salad bar?" That simplicity, wrapped in the vibrant tapestry of campus life, is a uniquely potent nostalgia. It’s a testament to the distinct environment we shared, a place that forged not just our intellects, but also our shared experiences of meals, mishaps, and those essential midnight snacks. The echoes of those moments still resonate, reminding us of where we’ve been and the unique bond we carry.