Going up the elevator, pushing your bags down the hall, hearing the click of the door; these are the last moments before students start their new life at the University of Missouri. Moving into college is a pivotal moment in many students’ lives, as they are expected to pack up their entire life into a few bags.
This adjustment period is one of the hardest times in a young adult’s life, but how we surround ourselves can help guide us through the next few years. Wanting to keep some of the familiarity and comfort of home, many students bring posters and other room decor with special meaning from their old room.
First-year student Lauren Micka did this when she transitioned from Nixa, Missouri, to her dorm at Mizzou.
“I have two posters in there that my dad painted,” Micka said. “Well, I guess they’re technically not posters, but they are definitely wall art, and I think they’re beautiful. And so every time I look at them, me and my dad used to paint together all the time, so they kind of just remind me of him and home.”
Holding onto a keepsake of home, one that possesses memories of family, is common for students to display in their rooms. For Micka, her posters hold a deeper meaning.
“I want to own my own sailing yacht, chartering business in the future,” Micka said. “That’s what I’m going to school for. And I love just looking up and seeing all my boats everywhere. And it’s an inspiration to me.”
Choosing to decorate her space with paintings her dad made helps Micka stay motivated while going through the difficult change that is a student’s first semester of college.
Avid movie lover and first-year student Hunter Keen chose to bring the most sentimental movie posters from his collection back home in Clarksville, Tennessee, which include “Spider-Man” and “Star Wars.”
“I saw [Spiderman] when I was younger in the movie theater with my mom, so it kind of stuck with me,” Keen said.
Looking up at the poster of a childhood memory creates a feeling of solace for Keen, a place of familiarity for when he goes home from class each day. Like many of his fellow students, filling that previously empty space with posters and mementos from home motivates Keen to keep going each day.
“I didn’t really buy anything before the dorm,” Keen said. “I just brought everything I had from home here. It’s kind of, it’s like a little pocket of, like, back home. That’s kind of how I decorated it to make it seem like it was back home.”
While this “mini room” is typically built during the first year away from home, students will oftentimes continue to build on that as they grow and experience more at Mizzou.
Junior Finn Lindsey has accumulated numerous souvenirs during her college years and chose to display them in her apartment as a reminder not to take things too seriously.
“I kind of also have, like, a memory wall, and it’s like, I just grab things from whatever I’m doing and just put it on the wall and be like, ‘Oh my god, I remember that,’” Lindsey said.
Similar to Keen and Micka, Lindsey wanted to generate a sense of relaxation in her everyday life by creating a safe space filled with personal interests. Stepping into a room full of fun-filled memories can provide much-needed fresh air.
Whether it’s a reminder of who they were before Mizzou or a glimpse of who they are hoping to become, the decor students choose becomes a grounding force in the whirlwind of college life.
Edited by Mikalah Owens | [email protected]
Copy edited by Alana Sheba and Avery Copeland | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]
