If I were to make a list of 10 things I was stressed about while heading into a new school year, decorating the depressing, jail-like room NYU gives you would definitely be on it. Trying to make four blank walls seem homey — and often without the help of parents — can be one of the most overwhelming feats. In fact, some students have gone the length to spend thousands on professional dorm designers so that they don’t have to deal with the dirty work themselves.
As someone who goes to NYU and lacks the disposable income for a designer, I settled for a much, much cheaper alternative: CVS photos, NYU freebies and random crap I collected from my travels in Florence, all secured by Command hooks and Scotch tape. There are train tickets, pretty chocolate wrappers and museum brochures on my wall. If you haven’t noticed already, I proudly identify as a chronic collector.
One of my favorite items is a bus ticket from Roma Tiburtina to the airport. I got the item when I was traveling abroad with friends when we got caught in the middle of a strike that unexpectedly extended into our trip to Brussels, forcing us to take a 3 a.m. bus to Rome instead of the train. Once we arrived at the station, we bought four shuttle tickets to the airport, only to watch the shuttle delay long enough that we would miss our flight. After spending 50 euros on an airport taxi, enduring a lot of stress and losing hours of sleep, we finally made it to our destination.
Although this doesn’t exactly sound like a happy memory, the stressful travel experience brought me and my friends closer. To compensate, I created the collage — and even though it constantly slips off my wall, it always serves as a touchstone from my time in Florence.
And here is where one may object, “But Mia, it’s falling off your wall because you did a terrible job of putting it together.” What if I told you that I did that — partly — on purpose?
The main issue I have with meticulously arranged rooms is that they seem too perfect. To me, they look as though they were plucked straight from the pages of a catalog. I love my tattered decor because it is anything but polished and display-worthy. In fact, it’s so poorly designed that it has to be maintained. I’ve actually found that re-taping it is a form of mindfulness since it forces me to truly look at the things on my wall and relive those memories each time a piece of paper falls.
The same thing applies when I take a step back to view my whole wall. My Florence collage then becomes part of an even larger one with objects I’ve kept from the States — photos of friends from home, more tickets and posters. If you stretch your imagination a little, viewing the entire thing sets all my experiences in dialogue with one another, and paints a beautiful, messy image of my life so far.
I must note that I’m certainly not working to devalue other students’ design approach. At the end of the day, self-care has multiple forms, and one is not inherently better than the other. For me, collage-making is simply my own way that I, in all of my penniless glory, have worked to feel happy and comfortable in a room that I can definitively call mine. The next time you’re out shopping with friends, request the receipt. Who knows? It might be just the thing you need to fill that blank spot in between posters.
Contact Mia Shou at [email protected].
