Love and lust found through LC Missed Connections

By Mackenzie Bath

You sit across from her in class every day and you never get the nerve to talk to her or tell her how beautiful she is. The class ends, and you missed your opportunity to talk to her. At Lewis & Clark, there’s a second chance on the LC Missed Connections Facebook page, a page dedicated to the hookups and romances of LC that have yet to come to fruition.

Missed Connections has been operating since 2013, servicing LC students by providing a home for compliments people do not give in person. The administrator of the page is an anonymous LC student. While the page itself is well known, the person behind vetting the posts remains a mystery. They asked to remain anonymous for this article.

Of course, this page wouldn’t work without submissions. The page includes a link to a Google form in which students can type anything they like. The administrator adds a number in front of the submission and posts them to the Facebook page.

The purpose of these posts is to point out a fellow student seen on campus that the poster thinks is attractive. It is a “connection” between two people that has been “missed” because one of them wasn’t paying attention.

With the busy life of a student, it can be hard to keep up with the amount of submissions this page receives.

“I try to post often, though I am a student,” the page administrator said via email.  “It can be hard to keep it up to date. Because of this I usually post in batches of around 10 (posts) rather than as I receive submissions.”

This means that students have to check back occasionally to see when a new batch of posts is published. The batches are generally larger after events such as concerts, shows or big parties.

There are multiple types of missed connections posts. Many are about specific encounters with the writer’s person of interest, including dates, locations and what the person was wearing. These may get a few likes, but are mostly passed over because it’s nearly impossible to identify them.

“To the guy in the black Toyota who I rear ended on terwileger (sic): I’m so sorry!” one post said. “Also I think ur cute and you have my number and my insurance info so hit me up.”

Posts which include names almost immediately have that person tagged in the comments. The person mentioned in the post will sometimes post a comment in response, saying things such as “just come say hey!” or other encouraging messages. There are seldom any negative responses posted in the comments.

Some students write poems about the person they’re interested in, including acrostics with the first letter of each line spelling a name. These posts are sometimes from an anonymous admirer, but are often from friends of the person mentioned in the post.

Inside jokes are also popular, and the comments on the post often consist of a group of friends poking fun at each other.

“He is tall, well built, charismatic and handsome,” one post reads. “His eyes, green with flecks of amber, are piercing yet warm. His charm is legendary. But why is he single? Raised from a young age by goblins who discovered him in the wilds, he quickly ascended to the position of goblin king with his superior human strength, ushering his clan into a goblin golden age.”

Whoever wrote this post was very creative, yet it’s unclear who it’s about. Students guessed in the comments which green eyed guy could be the object of these affections.

“I don’t know if I would say LC Missed Connections is important, but I definitely think it’s fun,” the page administrator said. “I think it makes the LC community feel more connected, seeing people from all different groups and areas of campus getting shoutouts.”

Occasionally, the anonymous poster will talk to the person they wrote the missed connection about. Very often this leads to an uncomfortable in-person thank you, and both parties move on.

“It was really flattering,” said a student who was in such a situation. They asked to remain anonymous to protect the identity of the person who wrote about them. “But nothing was ever going to happen between us.”

This student asked to remain anonymous as well, but mentioned getting multiple missed connections during their time at LC.

“It feels nice to be noticed,” the student said.

In other cases, the pair ends up hanging out or going on a date. One student said that she went on a few dates with the person she wrote a missed connection to, but they never developed a relationship.

To keep it a fun and clean space for students to express themselves, the administrator has to screen the posts before they can be published.

“I try to censor things that are overly sexual or could come off as negative towards the person or others,” the page administrator said.

This does not mean they get rid of the strange submissions. There are still some gems to be found in the waves of posted compliments.

“I want you to stuff me and fold me up like one of your tacos in the Bon,” one such post said.