New school year means new first years, new classes and new friends, but it also means new rooms. Setting up a new room, decorating it and simply making it feel more familiar and welcoming has its own challenges, but trying to do so when there is very little space to work with can often be a lot harder.
“I ended up giving up my desk, and we put the refrigerator underneath it, and so we have this random chair that floats around,” said Jordan Hamilton ’19. “We have a rug that fills up most of the space. We have some tapestries. We have a ton of string lights lining the rim of the room. If you put the actual lights off, and you put those on, it’s much nicer, and you don’t notice how small the room is. I really like it.”
“[My room last year] was smaller than it is now, but my roommate had his bed lofted, so it didn’t feel as small.” said Chrysolite Loglo ’19, who has a bigger room this year — one that’s better able to cater to the needs of two people.
“I think my roommate and I are people who like a lot of personal space, so we sort of divided the room down the middle, and we each live separately on our sides,” Loglo said.
Despite the fact that his room this year is a lot smaller than it was last year, Sj Kim ’17 enjoys the freedom that comes with having a single. He likes not having to worry about disturbing or getting in the way of a roommate. He is also not that disappointed with the very little extra space he has in the room.
“I try to fit everything inside my closet or under my bed, keep my things organized and make the room look cleaner,” Kim said.
Daniel Hwang ’18 is very pleased with the large double he has this year. Reflecting on his experience last year in a very small single, he said, “I didn’t have enough room to decorate it at all. I didn’t really live [in the room]; I only went there to sleep.” Hwang believes the extra space in the room has played an enormous role in making him feel more comfortable staying and studying in the room. He also likes the idea of living with a roommate. “I guess I prefer company,” he said.
Brian Sands ’19 hasn’t encountered any drastic difference in his living experience simply because of the size of his room, which is bigger this year than it was last year.
“Honestly there isn’t too much of a difference because I spend almost all of my time in bed. But we can more comfortably fit a bunch of people in our room, which is nice because both my roommate and I like to entertain,” he said. “[One difference] is just that now when I let dirty clothes pile up on the floor, they are more spread out, so it gives the illusion of cleanliness.”
