Love, romance, sex, relationships: these are strange, confusing topics on a college campus. The New York Times gets this and wants to learn more. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, they’re “inviting college students nationwide to open their hearts and laptops and write an essay that describes what love is like for them today.” The reward? Having their story printed in a special edition of the NYT Modern Love column. (Oh, and $1,000).

That made us curious: what’s love like today at USC? Are there common threads that link our experience together?

Yes and no, we found. In our exploration on college love, we heard stories ranging from hilarious to bizarre to just plain heartbreaking. We found that everyone’s romantic journey through these four-plus exhilarating, so damn confusing years is different.

But in a weird way, there’s solidarity in the difference. Hilarious, bizarre, heartbreaking things happen to you, but they also happen to everyone else. And it’s kind of nice to know that — you’re not alone on this completely overwhelming, one-of-a-kind ride. Here’s love at USC.

What’s your love story?

“Single and really hardly looking.” — Marisa Zocco

“My love story is that one day I will fall in love, and it will be just like a fairytale. I will propose to my beloved on horseback, and we will ride into the mountains singing a song.” — Spencer Carney

“It is about friendship and loving each other through friendship. That’s my love story; finding love through friends and family.” — Sooji Nam

“A train wreck.” — Joseph Lee

What does love mean to you?

“Love means being able to be who I am and be fully accepting of who someone else is.” — Marisa Zocco

“Love means taking care of each other.” — Jason

Graphic by Louis Kang, photo from CubaGallery (Flickr, Creative Commons)

“Love is a culmination of emotion and rational compromise. In order to fulfill a love there has to be compromise, there has to be sacrifice, and those are rational things. Emotion and rationale culminate into what I think is love.” — Juan Felipe Martinez

Graphic by Louis Kang, photo from CubaGallery (Flickr, Creative Commons)

“Love means being happy. Whatever you love and whatever makes you happy is what you really love. So, I do not think necessarily that you need to be in a relationship to find love. You can find love in yourself, find love in your free time… just doing anything that you like doing.” — Sooji Nam

How do you really feel about Valentine’s Day?

Graphic by Louis Kang, photo from CubaGallery (Flickr, Creative Commons)

“I do not really support Valentine’s Day, but if it makes her happy than I am happy with it.” — Jason

Graphic by Louis Kang, photo from CubaGallery (Flickr, Creative Commons)

“[On Valentine’s Day] I think I will be chilling with my friends singing, dancing, and just appreciating the time that we have with each other.” — Sooji Nam

Love, the Annenberg Media Center.

Contact Senior Arts Editor Gigi Gastevich here. 

This story was originally published on Medium. To view it there, click here.