By Ghina Al Sabbagh | Campus Reporter
A lot of things about the first few days of college are memorable and sort of overwhelming, like figuring out how to get from class to class and taking everyone’s words at face value. A lot of people have a lot more experience than we do and you want to hang on to their every word. On the first day of orientation, I remember listening to some cultured and distinguished alumni speaking about how they found the love of their life during these short and fast few years, and I heard all of the girls swoon and the boys snicker, and I thought: do people actually expect to find love like these people did here or are they only the exception and not the rule of college life?
Firstly, it’s crucial to recognize that assumptions relating to enjoyment in university can differ commonly amongst pupils. For some, university stands for a clean slate– a possibility to discover brand-new partnerships, create purposeful links and also possibly locate that unique person. These people might go into school with an outlook covered by rose-colored glasses, excitedly visualizing enchanting experiences that might turn into love.
Additionally, the university atmosphere itself plays an essential function in forming students’ assumptions concerning love. Universities humming with varied people from numerous histories like AUB produce abundant ground for enchanting expeditions. Common rate of interests, shared good friends, as well as distance promote chances for purposeful links to flower. The vibrant social scene of AUB life frequently allows serendipitous experiences along with whirlwind love to take place.
When I asked some students about it, most giggled and blushed about the idea of finding love while crying about their approaching midterms or the ones they already bombed. It seems like on a realistic level, most students find the idea quite laughable or quite embarrassing, but that’s the funny thing about it. Most students who laugh at this idea actually end up being the luckiest ones in finding love, and those who go into university clinging to this rom-com fantasy end up realizing that they are worth more on their own than a far-away dream of partnership.
However, here are some AUB couples that should show you how AUB can create love:
Kathia Kozman ’98 and Shukri Habib ’98 met in a biology class during their time as undergrads and now have three kids together. Rayan Makarem ’08 and Samira Naime ’08 are a married couple that met in their last semester as undergrads and consider their struggles along the chemistry stairs first dates. AUB Green Field athlete’s night in 1998 was the first meeting for Rola Al Mekkawi ’99 and Firas Farhat ’98, but it certainly wasn’t the last, for in 2002, they got married, had three kids, and Rola is now a USAID USP coordinator at AUB. There are many other similar stories like these that show you just how surprising and beautiful life at AUB can be despite and sometimes because of our education.
You can read more similar love stories of AUB alumni here: https://150.aub.edu.lb/couples