Growing up, my mom rarely let me put up posters on my walls because she claimed they would ruin the paint. When I first moved into my childhood bedroom, I chose a light purple for the walls. I still loved my purple walls, but I wanted to hang colorful posters and fairy lights draped over polaroid pictures of my closest friends. In secret (and out of an act of rebellion), I hung my first poster in my closet: a picture of the character Thrawn from Star Wars that I acquired from the book aptly named “Thrawn”.
During my junior and senior years of high school, I slowly transformed my childhood bedroom into a space that was a reflection of myself. Naturally, my first purchases were fake vines and fairy lights. However, I never got around to hanging any posters as I had originally planned. I collected trinkets, polaroid pictures and souvenirs in a mini treasure cove in the corner of my room.
When I first entered East Quad Residence Hall freshman year, I was excited to decorate a new space to be my own little corner of the world. Within the first few days, I started envisioning the type of room I wanted to have. Like any incoming freshman, I saved every aesthetic dorm room picture on Pinterest for inspiration.
I could have chosen a minimalist look, with white walls and a potted plant in the corner of my windowsill. Or, I could have made it as loud as possible with bright colors spilling into every nook and cranny to the point where every guest would have to exclaim, “She’s got personality!” Many ideas swam through my mind, and it was comforting to know I had the liberty to decorate however I wanted.
In search of the perfect posters, I attended the poster sale at the Michigan Union. For hours, I was mesmerized by the array of drawings, photographs and prints filling the hall. By the end, my arms were tired from flipping through books of posters, but I eventually carried back five prints of all different styles.
After putting up the final decorations, I realized my room didn’t have a theme. I hung blue and green fairy lights, overprints of fairies and cats above my bed. I rested a gnome on my drawer with a sign that read “BREATHE” next to it. I attached a picture of my favorite YouTuber across from my desk and I overflowed my windowsill with succulents I collected from a dorm neighbor.
There was nothing minimalist about my room and not every corner had the spark of color I had imagined, but I loved the home I had created for myself. For me, dorm decorating brought a sense of independence and expression I had never experienced before.
Throughout the semester, I made new friends and reconnected with old ones from high school. During that time, I visited many dorms and saw even more decorating styles. Some of my friends had posters of their favorite artists, while others decorated their beds with multi-colored pillows. One friend kept a vine in their room that wrapped around the window and touched a succulent. Another friend kept a desk filled with gifts from family and friends back home, while her roommate displayed her favorite albums.
What I loved was that no one had the same dorm as another. Even when someone’s walls remained bare, their desks held memories from home, or the windowsills revealed a part of themselves. To me, these moments perfectly encapsulated dorm decorating. Even if the walls are undecorated or if the room is minimally decorated, these details don’t make a one dorm more or less special than another.
Yes, our rooms can be a reflection of ourselves, but they are also a place we care for ourselves.
Our rooms present us with an opportunity to unwind or sneak under the covers for a late afternoon nap. They give us the space to dance and sing out loud (but not too loud because the walls are paper-thin). They provide a place to host late-night gossip sessions with your roommate or a party floor for when your friends come over on a Saturday night.
The way our rooms are decorated reveals parts of ourselves to others, and there is a unique sense of acceptance that comes from doing so. I found that no one judged how my poster colors didn’t match or how I didn’t have a fluffy rug because they knew how much I loved watering the plants in my room or resting on my pink reading pillow. Instead, we were more concerned about navigating Mason Hall or calling our parents to convince them we were not staying up late to finish homework. No one should ever judge someone else for how they choose to express themselves.
This is why I believe there is something intrinsically beautiful about dorm decorating. Seeing how other people envision their own spaces can make you feel less alone. I can’t even count the number of times I have stayed up late in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, walked back alone at 1 a.m.and saw a lava lamp illuminate the ceiling with vibrant hues of purple and red. Each time, I felt less alone.
So I recommend decorating your dorm room. Whether that means you add one singular thing or every inch of the walls and floor are covered. At the end of the day, your space is yours and there’s true beauty in that.
Summer Senior News Editor Claudia Minetti can be reached at cminetti@umich.edu.
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