Welcome to Lost and Found. This is an ever-growing online collection of writings and artwork about dealing with various issues at MIT. We want to make MIT students aware of and inspired by what others go through while at MIT, how they deal with stress, what resources they turn to, or just what makes MIT fun and unique to them. Basically, Lost and Found is like a “Chicken Soup for the Soul”-style website aimed at MIT students.

Anybody who sends in a submission between March 17th and May 17th (last day of classes) is eligible to enter a drawing to win a $40 gift certificate to the Cheesecake Factory. The winners will be e-mailed on May 18th. So start submitting!

Please read the submission guidelines for more information.

by anonymous

In March of my freshman year at MIT, I started getting anxiety attacks. Sometimes they woke me up at night, other times they crept up on me in the evening, when I was just relaxing or doing homework. I also started having stomach aches, which progressively restricted the food I could eat and kept me awake long after I climbed into bed. I saw a general practitioner at MIT Medical, and she assured me that I was fine. She said I wasn’t having panic attacks because I didn’t have heart palpitations, and she suggested Zantac twice a day for the nausea.
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by Matt Peairs
course 6-3

I lied. There is no part (1-1).

It’s my fault, of course. If I had gotten an earlier start, last week would not have turned out the way it did. But labs are hard to do when you’re busy. I have enough time to do everything, but my free time tends to come in chunks of twenty or thirty minutes. Which is perfect if I have to work on a problem set or write an essay or compose a piece of music—I just pull out my laptop wherever I happen to be and get work done in tiny increments. But a lab assignment requires hours of concentrated effort in a specific place, and just getting to the lab and back takes more time than I usually have.
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by anonymous

At MIT I miss a lot of things about home, about the world outside the bubble: Families, dogs, my mom’s home cooking, the sound of rain on the roof, not the window, cars that obey traffic laws… But one thing I miss most is the feeling of walking around barefoot in my house with the soft scrunch of carpet beneath my feet. That feels like home. That and not wearing flip flops in the shower.

by anonymous

So a few weeks ago, I’m walking to MIT towards the building one entrance, and as I’m approaching the corner to cross Mass Ave, I see this girl fall on the ice and I laugh to myself, while she’s trying to immediately stand up before someone sees her on the floor, but then she falls again. This time she stays on the floor looking very helpless and depressed. She gets up and tries to walk around the area that she just fell, and she falls again and gets up quickly only to fall again, this time staying on the floor for a little longer. This whole time she is just trying to step down from the curb and onto the street to cross towards MIT. Finally she tries a different spot and slides into the street and finally gets up and runs across. During this time, I am remembering a clip I saw at some point in my life where a horse gave birth to a foal. The little horse falls over a few times before it learns to walk and finally after a few tries gets it.
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by Tina Srivastavaclass of 2009, course 16

These photos demonstrate the pure joy that can come with snow. Of course, this joy is usually short lived, but it is nice to remember how happy snow once made me. Friends come together to sled and eat snow.

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by Z.C.
class of 2007, course 6

Maybe a month into school, I got comfortable with my new friends and classes and college life, etc. One day, I was sitting in my room when I realized that I had a lot of money ($400) in my bank account. A little idea sprung into my head: I could travel anywhere I wanted, and no one could really stop me. I looked around on line and found that I couldn’t really scrape enough money to go to Yosemite, but I could easily get up to Maine. At that instant, my bladder filled up, and I walked down the hall to the bathroom. On the way, I ran into my friend Carlos. Without thinking, I asked “You wanna go to Lake Superior?”
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by anonymous

I often walk through various parts of campus and see obscure art - some modern, some not-as-modern, and always wonder, what were they thinking? These pieces of art stick out to me because they encourage people to stop and stay awhile, while the rest of campus is rushing here, there and everywhere. I find comfort in these misfits because I feel like a misfit at MIT, too.

by Zsuzsa Megyery
class of 2009, courses 15 and 8

This piece is of the physical expression of students under high-stress and what it takes to get through in a place so demanding and unforgiving. This piece is emotional and beautiful – and has much to say beyond the image itself.

by Tina Srivastava
class of 2009, course 16

This represents a happy time at MIT. Holi is an Indian festival celebrating Spring where people play tag with colored powder. When people are covered in colors like red, blue, and green, you can’t tell if they are black, white, or brown. This represents hope for me. It is something we can hold on to when we are shocked by the vandalization of the MLK exhibit in Lobby 10.