A Shared Room Elena H. 21

Elena H. ’21

An empty room. An old office my father once used. Never would they think his office is now in the basement. Now my room. A big room. Filled with books.

Another old room. Adjacent to mine. Still empty for years to come. Then a creature came along. A creature with a mop for hair. Stubby legs.

My room now became a shared room. I had to share my space. And my toys. I grabbed MY pile of plastic toys And laid over them. My small body wriggled all over. Making sure this new human wouldn’t even think to touch them. She let out a cry. This upset my mother. She wanted two daughters to bond.

And we would.

We got bunk beds. Surely that would fix the bickering. It did for a while.

But we were back at it soon enough. She left socks all over MY side of the room. We continued. Changing from bunk beds to normal beds. Thank you, IKEA. Socks kept ending up on MY side. So, hair continued to be pulled.

After years of this same cycle. Finally, the summer after my freshman year. We got our own rooms. A new era. This once shared room, turned back into a space for myself. My sister taking the room adjacent. No more would there be socks on the floor. Or bickering into the night.

But I would miss her. And she would miss me. Coming to my door just to talk to me. Sitting at my desk having conversations. We learned to love each other. I became very protective of her. And still very much am. All because we shared a room.