Each room has an empty space to occupy creativity and with fun decorations, and when you get in college you have the freedom to do whatever you want with the bland walls inside your room.
Students at the Fort who want extra inspiration and motivation into their life can build an array of items they love to see daily, and this can inspire them into a more engaging student in the college’s community.
Each wall is a canvas for expression, there is an opportunity for creativity. And for each student who covers their room with personal items and objects that make their room feel like home.
People who have unique personal aesthetics and creative ways to decorate their living space will bring out possibilities that thrive on the college campus, and how these students express themselves reflects their personalities within the community at the Fort.
Students who are highly motivated in their majors will reflect on how they style their rooms, and with this personal freedom to express outwardly comes new possibilities with their college career.
“People reflect their personality based on how they decorate and how they want to express themselves”, Gerald Shorty, a Fort Lewis College counselor said. “Expressing yourself freely can motivate you greatly in the aspects you want to achieve and what goals you want to accomplish.”
Shorty has offered advice to students through stress-free decorating of their rooms to integrate into college academics and have their rooms feel safe for them to express themselves. Shorty said.
“Expressing yourself freely in how you set your room is therapeutic and relaxing for someone in their college career, they want something relaxing from all the stress that college brings,” Shorty said. “People want to decorate their rooms according to their hobbies, leisure activities, and interests.”
Patrick Augustine, a third-year studio art major who is living in the Gauge Apartments, freely expresses his aesthetic style.
“Some people on campus may stereotype my style, my style can be dark or scary,” Augustine said. “But I am very friendly within the Fort’s community, and I want to help other people find their own style and express themselves.”
Augustine’s style around his crib may be dark, ominous and doomy.
“It helps my creative ventures in my major, and has greatly motivated me into a better person. If people in our community label me into a category, it will motivate me more on how I express myself, and it helps out because it will motivate other people to express themselves at the Fort.” Augustine said.
The loved ones that inspired him in his style have been valuable to Augustine in how he interacts with his community and his college academics, he said.
“My room communicates how my creative mind is, and how this helps out with my art projects,” Augustine said.
The design inside the room he is in is not a single category, and his style does not fit in anyone’s mind as a single point of reference. Augustine said.
“I think my room reflects my personality greatly because I come from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there are many alternative communities out there,” Augustine said.
“The shirts I wear on a daily basis give me the creative spark I am craving. People may judge the shirts I wear around the Fort, but this motivates me on the person I want to become,” Augustine said.
Augustine’s collection of albums gives him a creative mind within his major and how he engages his creativity within projects in his classes.
“In one of my classes on campus, I had the opportunity to show off my favorite album,” Augustine said.
Augustine had the offer to show his favorite song from his favorite album in one of his classes, and people loved how he expressed himself, Augustine said.
Greg Chu, is a third-year music performance major who lives in town and commutes to campus every day to practice guitar and piano.
With guitars on his wall, Chu has been playing and practicing music for a long time.
“It’s definitely my calling,” said Chu. “The collection of guitars I have on the wall has sentimental value in how I navigate my major and creativity, it really motivates who I want to be in our community,” Chu said.
Chu lives in an area where activities happen everywhere, Chapman Hill is within walking distance and there is a gun range outside his home.
Chu has many opportunities to express his creativity in his living space, and the things around him can inspire him to create more music, he said.
A lot is going on within the area, but he is inspired more by the leisure activities everyone has, Chu said.
The musical scales on his wall have helped him with the practice he does with music, and the performance he has to deal with, as well as the amount of work it has, Chu said.
Like many FLC students, Greg is involved in cycling and skiing, these leisure activities have helped him get inspired in his music, Chu said.
“I want to be involved in our community as much as possible, this inspires me to learn on the subjects I love,” Chu said.
In 2023, Chu hiked Japan’s tallest mountain, Mt. Fuji.
The experience has helped him in the way he expresses himself, and how he integrates these elements into his music performance. Chu said.
Cheyenne Williams is a third-year writing major who is living on the East side of campus in Mears.
“I am the co-senior editor for Images magazine for the semester of 2024, my style is a way to communicate how I express myself in the work I do, and the poetry I write,” Williams said.
“I have over 50 plus posters on my wall, when I first got here in the dorms, I wanted to cover every bland thing in the room I will be living in for as long as possible,” Williams said .
Williams has posters of every kind, she has some posters that have autographs by famous people, Williams said.
I want to look at what inspires me, this has helped out what my poetry and creative writing I do,” Williams said.
Every wall was too bland for me to stay motivated, so I covered each wall with the things I love and the things I wanted to integrate within my poetry and writing, Williams said. \
The active things that cover my wall now are the stuff I am inspired by, she said.
Williams has been a collector of everything under the sun which inspires her to do the best creative work in her academic career at the Fort, and this experience of collecting has been motivating her for the last three years on campus, she said.
“I get involved with the community at the Fort, from doing KDUR as a DJ to co-senior editor for images,” she said.
“I enjoy everything around me because it has helped me thrive in my college career, and I want to communicate what I enjoy, how I express myself is a way I achieved a lot for the last three years of being in this wonderful community, and how my identity is related to what I am trying to do in college,” Williams said.