Last month, the Columbia Alumni Association got real cute for Valentine’s Day, soliciting alumni for sweet, beautiful, poignant photographs and stories of their own “Columbia LOVE,” and they’re still taking submissions. We didn’t realize how damn adorable and old school they were until we perused the whole thing. The full photo albums can be found here and here, but we’re feeling sentimental, so here are some favorite snippets.

Mom + Son: “You grew up in the campus. I remember the little boy running up and down the stone stairs next to the Alma Mater. You have been a fast runner since you could run. It still makes me nervous seeing those stone stairs and imaging a little boy running down with laughter. You loved to laugh when you were little. After I spent a whole day doing experiment in the laboratory, letting you running into my arms and kissing your big smiley cheeks on the lawns next to the college walk turned the campus a heaven to me.

You belong to Columbia. It was in your blood. It is home. You went right back to it eighteen years later. Now the Alma Mater around whom you used to spend your toddler years is the one of your own. You are studying in the same classrooms as I used to study. Seeing you walking around the campus side by side to the little running, laughing boy has made me fall in love with you and the school all over again.”