Does it spark joy?
by Daisy Conant
How four students are making their living spaces feel like home during online learning
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ow do you make a house feel like a home? Or to put it more aptly for Northwestern students, how do you make a largely empty dorm, an Evanston apartment or a childhood bedroom feel like a comfortable and sane space to live while balancing Zoom classes, quarantines, and weekly existential crises? From shrines to their favorite singers to bedroom wall art galleries to four-legged roommates, here’s how four students managed to bring a bit of joy to their living arrangements this quarter.
Making home feel like home Growing up with three sisters, Communication senior Mac Lim didn’t have her own space until she got to college — and even then, she always shared it with a roommate. But with the University’s last-minute closure of the Evans Scholars House, Lim has been able to transform her childhood bedroom — a “blank slate” since her sister left for college — into a setting that’s uniquely hers, filled with her own supplies and collegiate memorabilia. “I’ve been struggling to find something or some sort of space that feels like it belongs to me, especially when I've always shared what feels like everything,” Lim said. “So feeling that I have one thing that can be my own is definitely helpful for my mental health.”
Shrine of the times
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A mantle displaying a unique curation of her roommate’s art, a piñata, and farmers market flowers. A collage of magazine cutouts, postcards, and photos of family and peers that she’s been collecting for years. A homemade shrine to singer-songwriter Harry Styles. For Medill sophomore Soumya Jhaveri, decorating her Evanston apartment was a way to create a space that she felt was her own and reminded her of what college could be, despite the distance between her and the friends she made last year. “The previous six months when I was at home, I just didn't feel focused in that space because it didn't remind me of who I was now,” Jhaveri said. “It felt very middle school — my walls were still l bright blue. Being able to transform (our apartment) into somewhere I can spend hours in the same place every day was something that was really important to me.”
