Splash No. 203 - Spaces
Spaces
In a few weeks, one of my roommates is moving out and I’ll be taking over his room. The difference in the sizes of our rooms is nearly negligible, yet the prospect of moving my small kingdom of stuff down the hall is an exciting one nonetheless. After growing into even more of a homebody in the last few years, mixing up my space has become an important ritual for me. Whenever I reach an inflection point in my life, I enjoy changing up my room a bit, whether it’s rearranging the furniture, adding a new piece of furniture, or, in this case, switching rooms.
During my freshman year of college, I skipped decorating my dorm room, and remember hating spending time there, probably because my lighting options were limited to the fluorescent ceiling light that reminded me of a high school classroom. After realizing this, I’ve admired the ability of small changes to completely alter the energy of a space. I learned to appreciate the many small efforts my mother put into decorating my childhood home. A small shift in lighting turns a space from uncomfortable to cozy, cozy to focused, etc. Each element of a room can do the same thing — be it the smell, the colors, the wall hangings.
In the following years, I got my own room and found joy in decorating my room in the most minimal ways possible — hanging up Christmas lights, lighting incense, printing free posters in the library, and making wall art out of washi tape or taping up flyers and posters from concerts. Even with these small changes, my room became my sanctuary, where I could always return to feel comfortable and at ease.
At this point, I’ve been out of school for nearly three years, even though it absolutely does not feel like it. And yet, it doesn’t feel like I’ve ever fully put together my own room. My college rooms came furnished and since graduating I’ve often relied on hand-me-downs to fill the space. So, my rooms over the last few years have never felt like truly cohesive, well-thought-out spaces. I’ve always had too much stuff with too little storage space, while trying to keep things visible and accessible so I didn’t forget about them. I love my room and how I’ve put it together, but I’m equally excited to try and adapt to my new space, ready to invest more time into figuring out how I can make my space help me to live in a way that I enjoy (lots of coziness and reading).
Right now, I imagine myself sitting in a completed version of my room, and somehow everything is better: the sun shines more brilliantly, my mind is crystal clear, there is a perfect place for every object in my possession. Nothing is out of place because everything has a place. Every morning I will wake with a smile on my face. I’ll make my bed before launching into a 14-step morning routine that millionaires would be jealous of. I will move slowly and intentionally, like a monk. All of this will be thanks to my newly decorated room that shapes the very essence of my being. Because ultimately, my excitement for this space is an excitement for Change itself, that the shift in my living space will shift me towards being better. I’m searching for certainty — that things will be where they are supposed to be, even if everything else feels ambiguous. I’m definitely putting a lot of pressure on something that doesn’t exist yet, but it will soon and it will be glorious.
Drops of the Week
ALBUM - MAHAL by Toro y Moi - new Toro !
ARTICLE - "The Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class" by Noam Scheiber - interesting read about how college-educated working class folks are involved with the rise of some high profile labor unions
POEM - "Dear P." by Victoria Chang - "your hands dripping knives"
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Spatially,
Nikhil