The Stages of Room 217

Warning: super long post ahead that was written mostly for myself to remember my freshman dorm room!

Room 217 was my first home away from home, and it was a fantastic one at that. It gave me a lifetime's worth of memories full of tears, (a lot of) laughter, and even vomit. It has also gone through its fair share of various stages and I wanted to share with you the journey that this little box of a paradise went through with my lovely roommate and me.

Would you just look at the trippy windows/desks? The room went bonkers after our departure!

Stage #1: Ironically, this picture was taken the day after both of us left, so it should technically be the last stage. However, after a late-night conversation with Cassandra, I instead want to think of the empty room as the first stage and the fully-made home we left behind as the last stage. I personally have never even seen my room completely empty because Cassandra already had half of her stuff in it when I first showed up and she still had half of her stuff in it when I left. It's weird that it was taken after our stories in there unfolded because it doesn't look like we've lived there at all. But anyways, this was Stage #1. Then...

 

Stage #2: Mostly decorated, cleanest it's ever been. These pictures really amuse me because: 1) everything is just too... organized and set-up. Everything has its own place. Those bulletin cork board things are still up. Cassandra has her side and I have mine. Our stuff is on our own sides. That dynamic completely changed. We stopped having sides, stopped having proper places for things. 2) We actually used the things provided for us. See: recycling bin, desks, so on and so forth. This was the awkward stage, the I-have-my-own-"place" phase. Funny.

 

Stage #3: the massive decorating phase. Around Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/a little bit of Easter, we went through this major obsession with decorating the room. Except... We might've overdone it. Just a little bit. This successfully turned our room into one big clusterbeep. We wrapped the door with wrapping paper, put up lots of twinkly lights (never mind that this is against housing policy, whoops!), put up lots of jelly letters that eventually bled into the wall. Also, our blinds fell down and we didn't do anything about it for the majority of winter quarter. Over break, maintenance came in and fixed the blinds... Over the colors stains. So, if they ever fall down again, at least whoever lives in this room will be greeted with a joyous Merry Christmas! We also had lots of ornaments and bells that rained glitter. Such a cluster!

Stage #4: the big room re-arrangement. We had this little ritual. Unlike most other roommates, the two of us usually went to sleep and woke up (or not) at the same time. At night, around 2 or 3 or eventually 4 AM, we would turn off the lights and just lay in bed for a good 10-15 minutes. Sometimes we talked about life and the universe. Sometimes we stared at our glow-in-the-dark stars. Sometimes we listened to our little ghost who poured cereal at 3:15 AM every night. Sometimes we played our word association games. Sometimes we just browsed Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook/whatever else on our respective phones and then reported back to each other. One night, the lights were off and we just randomly decided to rearrange the room. We started at 1 AM and ended at 4 AM. It was ridiculous. It literally was like one giant game of Unblock Me - we couldn't move one thing without moving something else. We de-lofted her bed and moved it forward, moved the desks so that they sat (unused) at a corner and moved my bed back. It's sad that I don't have a full picture of this room arrangement, but it was lovely.

Stage #5: these pictures were taken the day we started taking off wall decorations, thus beginning the move-out process officially. It was the final phase in this room we called home for nine months. This shows the final set up: Cassandra's bed was wedged between the wall shelves and these drawers. I love, love, love these pictures because they show everything messy and unorganized, just like how everything is supposed to be. This is home to me. It doesn't look like that in the physical space anymore, but in my memory, it is how the room will always exist.

Anyway, this has been an extremely long post, but I just wanted to remember our room in all of its phases. It's been a place that has given me so much happiness and it has also played a huge part in our second floor dynamics, in fostering the friendships we have with our closest friends, and especially in our relationship as roommates and best friends. So, thank you Serra 217, for doing all that you did for us.

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Random thoughts:

1. Finally went shopping today after like 23498 months of abstaining from clothes-shopping. I think that I need to be gradually let back in that jungle because all of the sales and big stores overwhelmed me and I only got a hot pink bandeau from Express and a really cute crop top from F21. I want my shopping prowess of yesteryear back!

2. In 21 minutes, I am going to go watch my dear friend Kristian Ipsen compete in the Olympic Trials - the finals for one of his diving events! What a boss! I'm so excited for him! Just kidding, I watched this and he did it! He's going to the Olympics! So proud of him!

3. Food log of the day: four strawberries, a chili-cheese coney + tater tots + a reunion with my beloved cranberry limeade from Sonic (heart attack!), and a Caramel Frappucino from Starbucks. Never mind that I conveniently didn't run or work out today. Whoops.

4. Also, I want Sprinkles back in my life.