Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine how university students create a home in the temporary living space of a dorm room. Establishing their first independent living arrangement marks a rite of passage between childhood and young adulthood, highlighting a unique example of place making and self-expression.

Paper long abstract:

Leaving the family home to create a new home in a dorm room or university apartment marks a threshold between childhood and adulthood for many young Americans. Restricted by limited space, a young person is challenged to make a comforting home-like sanctuary while navigating moving to a new place, attending classes, and living with a roommate who is likely a stranger. Most of the time, this arrangement will be temporary. Students sign a one-year rental contract, and once they pass their first year at school, they are no longer required to live in university dormitories.

Establishing a temporary home at school serves as a rite of passage. Students leave their childhood home and attempt to make a new home for themselves as young adults, both physically and emotionally. Their living space becomes an expression of self. Often, dormitory rooms are sparsely furnished with bare walls and only basic furniture. Each person makes this room their own with items they bring from home, inherit from older siblings or upperclassmen, or purchase. No two rooms look alike. They are made unique by items the individual chooses as significant to creating a sense of home and comfort. In this paper I will explore the ways students identify home and what they choose to surround themselves with in terms of décor. Going deeper into the psychology of place making, do they identify home as this new space they have created, or does home remain the childhood place they left behind?