(pic is of my girlhood bedroom) For those of you who have read the recent article in the NY Times Magazine “What is it about 20-somethings?” I am the female counterpart to the 20-something archetype* who hangs his new PhD in his boyhood bedroom (except it’s not a PhD hanging on my wall but a Fulbright certificate). I have finally taken it upon myself to own my Jersey upbringing and have started to accept that I might just be living at home for now and the foreseeable future. Hence, the emerging bedroom, the end to my girlhood bedroom and the beginning of my 20-something sanctuary. If I am going to be job hunting for the next few months in my bedroom, I might as well do it in a minimalist, sophisticated solitude. You can’t see the clutter on the ride side of the bedroom in this picture, but I barely had enough space to place two tiny candles on a bookshelf so I could pray and meditate.
A good friend once told me that I should let go of things and not get stuck in the past. But, how could he know what my albums of China and Taiwan meant to me, or my collection of track medals, or my neon yellow lava lamp? Ok, I guess it's time for detachment. As I started painting over the purple walls of my memories, I started feeling less attached to the objects representing my past. It is my hope and prayer that I can fill this room with new dreams and aspirations.
Get ready for pictures of my new bedroom…however long it will take!
*"A cover of The New Yorker last spring picked up on the zeitgeist: a young man hangs up his new Ph.D. in his boyhood bedroom, the cardboard box at his feet signaling his plans to move back home now that he’s officially overqualified for a job. In the doorway stand his parents, their expressions a mix of resignation, worry, annoyance and perplexity: how exactly did this happen?"(Henig NY Times Aug 18, 2010)).
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