An Olives assessment from an emotional senior

It’s lunchtime throughout a cold afternoon on the primary day of winter quarter, 2020. Buddies are reuniting after winter break and catching up, excitedly discussing lessons, weekend plans and a brand new ‘Lamborghini yellow’ sculpture that the College president appears far too enthusiastic about.

I’m assembly my finest pal for lunch at Olives, our favourite eating institution on campus. The six objects on the menu are sufficient to fulfill our very completely different dietary decisions. Sitting on the benches, surrounded by flowers on this nook behind the Historical past Nook, we spend hours speaking about our lives and the world round us.

It’s the begin of a brand new quarter and the positivity and liveliness within the air scream that nothing can go unsuitable. 

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Two and a half years have handed, and, in fact, the whole lot has gone unsuitable. A pandemic and quite a few almost-world-ending occasions have been delivered to us on an ever-so-depressing information cycle, altering how we reside and work together with others. And as eating places, shops and folks open again up once more, we will solely yearn for what as soon as was.

Fall quarter, 2022 marked the reopening of Olives, and for us seniors, it was like being reunited with a long-lost pal.

As I descended the steps of Wallenberg Corridor, all my recollections began speeding in — from quick-yet-satiating meals between lessons to lengthy chats with pals over lunch. As I ran to the comfortable nook of Foremost Quad, adorned with balloons and streamers celebrating its reopening, I couldn’t wait to attempt my favourite sandwich from Olives’ menu: “The Oval.”

“Buffalo hen, pepper jack, blue cheese dressing, tomato, iceberg lettuce on Dutch Crunch bread.” As quickly as you open the cardboard field enclosing the sandwich, you’re greeted with the savory scent of tacky buffalo sauce. The Oval was simply as sensible as I remembered it to be. 

You’ll by no means complain a few scarcity of toppings in an Olives sandwich. With cheese oozing out of the perimeters, you don’t want to fret about pulling off an excessive amount of of it in a single chew. The comfortable bread and beneficiant fillings added heat and homeliness to the sandwich. This heat was additional enhanced by the cooks who made it with a lot love and served it with a large smile. 

The ambiance of Olives isn’t any much less particular. Whereas the restaurant is small, its location is extremely handy — close to quite a few lecture rooms and with quite a lot of seating choices. Though Olives is positioned beneath the bottom, it’s at all times sunlit and ethereal. Streams of cool winds from the surface brush your face as you wait to your meal, gentler than a mom’s contact.

Olives is just not one of the best sandwich spot on this planet. However it’s the right one to satiate your starvation for meals and luxury away from residence, particularly for the plentiful selection that you’re given. Every merchandise on the menu is made for somebody with a special palette — from the vegans to the carnivores, overlaying virtually everybody in the hunt for an gratifying sandwich. 

As outdated patrons like me come again to Olives for an emotional reunion and new college students uncover the place, curious to see what this restaurant on the finish of the hallway is, Olives has turn into a logo of temporality on this ever-changing campus. Lakes stuffed up, circles of dying had been eliminated, new neighborhoods created a storm. However the establishment of Olives appears to be fabricated from stone.

As quickly as you enter, it’s like nothing has modified. However 4 years have handed and you’re a senior beginning your final 12 months on this campus. Though it won’t seem to be it, you and your folks have grown up and advanced. As you all apply for jobs and grad college, you see your folks develop into themselves much more, slowly changing into the adults you by no means thought you’d see them as. Some pals are actually nearer whereas others have moved additional away, however the ones you met at Olives to catch up nonetheless stay as shut as they had been then. New lessons in your schedule, new college students on this campus and new dorms to maneuver into and ultimately transfer out of. However beneath all these adjustments, the Olives menu and the style of its scrumptious sandwiches stay fixed.

Editor’s Observe: This text is a assessment and consists of subjective ideas, opinions and critiques.