The College Essay Winners
We asked college students nationwide to tell the plain truth about what love is like for them. The Winner: Want to Be My Boyfriend? Please Define.
The editors of Modern Love are interested in receiving deeply personal essays about contemporary relationships, marriage, dating, parenthood...any subject that might reasonably fit under the heading “Modern Love.”
fashionNewsCollege students’ entries in this year’s Modern Love essay contest reveal a shift to technology-enabled emotional intimacy. Here is the winning essay.
May 1, 2011A surprising romantic connection laid out over the years and across the miles that linked one couple.
April 24, 2011Where was the “nice boy” who would help me cross over into adulthood, into the world of rings and babies?
April 17, 2011WE had been married for just over a year when the F.B.I. showed up at our house at 6 a.m. and arrested me. They arrested my husband, too, although at the time that seemed beside the point. A stickler for rules who had never even gotten a speeding ticket, I was handcuffed in my mismatched pajamas and hauled away. My teeth weren't even brushed. The charges against me -- against us both -- were wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. In a state of shock, I began babbling to the F.B.I. agen...
April 10, 2011AS the daughter of divorced parents, I wasn't sentimental about weddings or marriage. I had no visions of myself wearing a white dress. My thoughts on the subject instead tended toward pre-nups, counseling and custody. Yet when I fell in love and decided to marry at 35, rather than elope I allowed my fiancé, Ken, to talk me into a small ceremony in our hometown, Berkeley, Calif. We agreed to keep it simple: local park, vegetarian buffet, 70 guests.
April 3, 2011When a good friend’s ex brings his lover to your spin class.
March 27, 2011THAT there were 1,200 miles and several states between us meant constant motion: planes, taxis, buses, trams. And a lot of sitting around waiting -- in airports, for cabs, for one of us to pick up the other. Over time, the states between us grew emotional as well as physical: not only Tennessee and Arkansas but also anxiety, longing and anger at cancellations or delays and irritation at those who haunt airport gates all over America yelling into their cellphones (''We're here!'' or ''I had Quiz...
March 20, 2011The 1,200 miles dividing two people takes its toll.
March 20, 2011Because of the noticeable absence of men in my family, for years the men in my aunt’s VHS collection were the only men I knew.
March 13, 2011We sought a certain romantic formality in what has become an informal and wholly nonromantic world.
March 6, 2011He considered himself different from the rest of her fans; he felt he understood her better and wanted her more.
February 27, 2011SEVERAL years ago I went to the California Cryobank's Web site to buy sperm. I was single and a lesbian and wanted to have a baby. I'd always wanted a family and dreamed of creating one with a partner, but I'd proved to be a love loser. When it didn't work out with anybody, including my most recent ex (after six years of couples counseling, meditation, acupuncture, hypnosis), I gave up. I thought romantic love, the kind of love that sustains an adult relationship, was impossible, at least for m...
February 20, 2011A sampling of intriguing tactics for locating love: familiar oldies that have been dusted off, and modernized, technology-driven alternatives.
February 13, 2011Reaching an understanding was the challenge.
February 6, 2011Two men, one name, and a vision of a romantic future together that changed in the process.
January 30, 2011Ending the marriage freed us from our anger and disappointment.
January 23, 2011A youthful mark turns out to be a good inoculation against atrophy.
January 16, 2011A single 35-year-old virgin makes a visit to Planned Parenthood.
January 9, 2011A mugging exposes the universality of trauma and the glorious imperfections of marriage.
January 2, 2011A road trip to show off a new baby to the family at Christmas takes a detour as darkness falls.
December 26, 2010SEARCH 342 Columns:
We asked college students nationwide to tell the plain truth about what love is like for them. The Winner: Want to Be My Boyfriend? Please Define.
Runner-up Entries: May I Have This Dance?, My Dropout Boyfriend Kept Dropping In, Let’s Not Get to Know Each Other Better