Freshman Year & Four Closets
Graphic by Aarushi Khurana
I feel like I’ve changed so much since coming to college. The way I carry myself, the way I feel about certain things, the way I talk. But also, the way I dress. And I can attribute a lot of these changes to my four new closets.
Being put in a quad was the last thing I was expecting. Out of all the things to worry about college, housing was a big one. I still remember opening my offer with my friends who just got their bougie Blackwell double and I stared at my email that read: CLARK KERR QUAD. It was the end of my senior year of high school and though it wasn’t that serious, I was tripping over the fact that I was going to live in a cramped room with three other girls that I barely knew, all while having to navigate being a freshman in college.
But we got close really fast. Soon, these three strangers basically became my sisters. It was probably only a day after meeting each other when we started borrowing each other's makeup, bags, and especially clothes. That was one of the biggest perks, access to four closets, there was no shortage of clothes. Whenever someone had an interview, a party, when we just wanted to switch it up and wear something different when going out, there was always something in one of our closets. Ananya has this edgy leather jacket that looks so perfect with Amisha’s gray mini dress, and I have this purple lace top that looked so good for Haasini’s halloween costume.
Quite often we “accidentally” have impromptu fashion shows for the different things we go to. Mostly it’s me stressing over some event and the girls pitching their clothes to me and helping me style. It’s never neat, the clothes normally end up hanging over doors, on desks, mine have migrated to one half of my twin sized bed and I squish to the other side. I still remember when I interviewed for Garb and needed to find the perfect outfit, causing all of our closets to be emptied out into our shoebox of a dorm (I ended up wearing Ananya’s green skirt, Amisha’s bracelets, my funky denim heels and got in, so really should thank my roommates for being able to write this article).
There’s a lot of things that have brought us close this year, but I feel like the clothes especially have been a vehicle in why we’ve bonded so much. I get soooo excited when they end up wearing my clothes. Not only does it validate my fashion sense, but it feels like they are carrying a piece of me wherever they’re headed. And it’s the same when I wear something of theirs. We always acquire clothes with a certain intention and they carry our own memories, so when we share them there’s trust and emotion that goes along with it.
Next year we’ll still be living together in the same apartment but in our own separate rooms –and I get a little sad about the idea of not being packed together in a 20 x 20 foot room, crying laughing over Amisha’s anime/robotics t-shirt she wears to sleep before going to bed. We’ll still be diving into each other’s closets – this time we’ll have even more space for more clothes – but it won’t be the same without the forced proximity. We’ll still be close obviously, but we won’t be within the same five feet of each other doing our makeup, borrowing someone's glitter eyeliner, and putting on someone else’s dress before going out, singing “byeeeee” whenever one of us leaves the door and raving over how they look.
"Just a Girl who Loves Anime and Robotics" on my Mechanical Engineering major roommate
My shirts are no better…
But I still can’t wait for our closets to keep growing and to keep borrowing each other’s clothes. These girls genuinely made my freshman year and I couldn’t have made it through without them, and they’re the reason I’m looking forward to the next three. Okay this whole blog was so mushy and emotional byeeee <3
