...or bunking

by Kelly Cheng

When we first sprint into our rooms each fall, we think, "Hmm...this room's bigger than I expected!" However, after we have trudged up four flights of stairs--carrying various boxes and bags that have nothing in common save the fact that each seems to get heavier and larger after each progressive step--we realize one thing at once: our rooms are much too small. That common room that seemed so spacious when it was empty turns out to be no bigger than a shoebox after the posters have been carefully hung on the sterile, eggshell-white walls, the scavenged $20 rug spread out on the floor, and the couch and television resting against the walls.

But the biggest surprise is the bedroom. Especially those doubles. "Sardine tins" would be an unnecessarily generous description. Since Martha Stewart hasn't come out with a dorm-room-furnishing book yet, we are essentially left alone in the wilderness of dorm room aesthetics. The beauty of a room is its shape. In the case of a Yale double, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as most of them are shaped more like narrow hallways than bedrooms.

I suppose one could conceivably place the beds side by side. There might be enough room to shimmy between the two beds and squeeze one's way over to the dresser, but that would be a hassle. And then there would be no room for that other dresser, or either of the desks. Indeed, their fate would rest in the already overcrowded common room, alongside sofas and halogen lamps.

Bunking, however, frees up much more space. Instead of a bed taking up that dwindling amount of floor area, one could put a dresser there. One could actually walk around in the room. True, someone would have to make a flying leap to reach that top bunk every night. And true, the roomie on the bottom bunk could greet each morning by clunking his or her head, but I digress. Just think of the extra space!

We all know that despite our valiant attempts at minimalism, every year we accumulate more and more stuff. After a year or two at Yale, we no longer have to find space just for the veneer university dresser but also for our own additions. At this point, bunking is the only way to free up space for our extra, but essential, things.

Kelly Cheng is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards.

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