Partly Cloudy, 64°
Surveying his recently decorated dorm room in Champlin Hall, Eli Marguerite ’19 expressed his satisfaction in re-creating the cold, emotionally distant feel of his childhood home.
“I started by shoving all my elementary school art projects in a big bin and stowing it away somewhere far out of sight and mind,” said Marguerite, standing on the immaculately folded sheet of his bed to hang a single small framed portrait of his family. “I thought about getting speakers for my laptop, but I was never allowed to play music at home, so I wouldn’t really know what songs to get.”
Marguerite, much like many of the class of 2019, is somewhat apprehensive about college life. “This is my first time living away from home, and obviously I can’t bring my parents to Brown. So I need to find other ways of remembering their stilted, aloof manner at the dinner table as they absent-mindedly ask me how my day was before cutting me off to discuss their recent phone call with that financial guy Marty.”
“I was worried that the communal spirit of dorm living wouldn’t vibe with me, but I’ve been doing the best I can to avoid emotional connection with my classmates,” continued Marguerite, adding that he gets a comforting wave of familiarity every time his RC has seemed too distracted with her biology homework to pay attention to him, almost like how his parents used to. “Plus, I was lucky enough to get a room with windows that are a little too high to see out of, like the ones that I’d always strain to peek through to watch the neighbor boys play touch football with their dad in the late summer evenings.”
“But you can’t go back again, can you,” he finished wistfully.
At press time, Marguerite was setting the thermostat to just a touch cooler than room temperature.
