Our Very Own Modern Love Story

By: Genevieve Himmelberg

They say "life imitates art." In the RIF club we are currently reading Modern Love, a collection of unique tales of real life people's stories of experiencing in love in NYC. Yutong and Eric have shared their accounts of their first encounter; a serendipitous moment which led to their fated and beautiful connection. Their story, told side by side, mirrors the raw and heartwarming tales we've been reading. And so, I present to you RIF's very own Modern Love story.

Yutong Chen:

Me and Eric met in RIF. He was a mentor but not in my group. Once I went to Liz’s WRT102 Office Hour, he was sitting straight at the same table with Liz. I just sat near Liz and faced Eric. He sat in a very standard sitting position with no expression on his face. I feel like he is the type of person who is hard to get close to. When the time was approaching for RIF GBM, we went upstairs together to join the meeting. On the way, we just exchanged our majors and school years and that’s it. That day was a game night for RIF and we were in the same group playing Ultimate Catch Phrase Game which is a word guessing game. When I was holding the word on my head. I was excited but a little bit nervous. Everyone’s rushing to describe the word, even using body language. However, Eric was so calm. His description of the word was so clear and easy to understand. His voice was firm which calmed down my anxiety. I got the words quickly and gained confidence to be more active and started admiring Eric. At the end of the game, I was so happy to guess a lot of words successfully and then he approached me to ask for my contact information. We exchanged our social media. He started talking with me in a very gentle voice tone and just said he’s going to go back home. After scrolling his social media, I changed my impression about him. He has so many interesting experiences and opinions shown on his account and we have so many things in common. The more we got to know each other, the more we would like to spend time with each other. We started dating. Up to now, we have been together for two years. We are still very happy to spend time with each other and be energetic to explore new things together. Definitely, we always enjoy reading together and exchanging ideas which make our hearts and brains get closer and closer.

Eric Xiao:

I met Yulene in the hush of an English office hour,

Where I sat, half-lost in words and quiet work.

She entered—softly, yet striking—

Her left cheek wrapped in gauze,

A strange contrast to the light she carried.

That gauze, bold and out of place,

Did not belong on someone so graceful—

So full of calm strength and quiet beauty.

She sat beside me,

Not with hesitation, but with purpose—

Turning her thoughts to writing,

Speaking gently to Professor Elizabeth.

I watched her,

Drawn not by perfection, but by presence.

In that still moment,

Before games and laughter,

Before questions and first steps—

I began to fall in love.

Eric and Yutong: pictured at RIF 4/25.