Keep Those Childhood Dreams Alive

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” 
You’ve been asked that question before. Maybe when you were 5, or 15, or 25. Sometimes the answer changes over the course of a decade or two. When I was 5 (okay, more like 7 or 8) I wanted to be an interior designer or a pediatrician. When I was 15, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. And when I was 25, I was somewhere between still wanting to go out and save the world and realize I can still make an impact with the work I do in marketing for a tech company. I still think about going into a STEAM career…maybe that’ll be my fourth or fifth career.
Anyway, I recently realized that my childhood dream of being an interior designer doesn’t have to die. My roommate and I have been living together for a little over a year and a half. It’s a delightful two bed, one bath apartment in Bethesda, Md. The apartment is shaped like an L with our living room being the horizontal part of the L. When we moved in, we put our sofas down and arranged the living room. And left it like that for a year and a half.
It became a “catch all” room. Random projects one of us started and finished could be found sprawled across a “dining room” table that was pushed in the corner of the room. Throw blankets were thrown on top of a side table that could have supported a side lamp or piece of art. A map puzzle we completed about two months after moving in was glued together but sat on top of some poster board under our tv stand. It was time to refresh the room.
My roommate went to Cancun between Christmas and New Years Eve. I was working from home that entire week. Before she left I told her that I was going to be changing the room around quite a bit.
I knew I didn’t want to buy new furniture which meant I had to work with a dark blue fabric sofa and a dark green leather sofa. Not the easiest color scheme. I knew that the room needed better lighting. Beyond that, I had no idea what I wanted it to look like. But, I did know that I wanted it to feel cozy.
Tuesday afternoon, my friend Andrea came down from Frederick to hang out with me; we took a trip to IKEA to find some design inspiration. Inspiration turned into wanting to buy all new everything and start over with a brand new room. Reality, Elaheh. Be realistic. 
A stroll through the showroom and a jog through the marketplace left me with an awesome, funky lamp and a frame for the map puzzle. That was it. *I did return the next day to purchase two awesome door-themed posters I meant to buy the first day* We made our way back to my house and started to put together the lamp. Originally, my plan was to give the round catch-all-dining-room-esque table back to my parents since it doesn’t get used much. Andrea had a great idea – let’s flip the room around. Move the sofas around a bit to (hopefully) open the room and perhaps find a new spot for the dinner
So, we did just that. In the process, we got rid of a lot of junk that my roommate and never threw out, consolidated all of our arts and crafts tools, and found a home for most of the stuff. Midway through our room improvements I realized that we didn’t take a before/after picture! Although that may be for the best. The old space was not welcoming, not organized, and not a practical use of the room.
The moral of this story is that we can (and should!) always find ways to let our inner child play. Whether it’s keeping a pre-teen’s dream alive or getting down and dirty with the kids in our lives, it’s so important to play. A step beyond that, our home’s need to be a slipper and a sneaker – warm and fuzzy and supportive. Make your home joyful, comfortable, and dynamic. Hang up art. Buy a new lamp. See how you feel. Keep on modifying until you create a space that feels good.
What childhood (or adulthood) dream do you need to revitalize?