New Year, New Decorations.

Classes are back in session at Hope College.

The campus has sprung back to life with the clack of longboards rolling along sidewalks, conversations sparking new friendships, and excited hellos coming from friends long separated by the months of summer.

As the campus outside comes alive once again, so do the inside of the dorm rooms.
My roommate and I knew what we really needed to bring back to Hope for our Sophomore year – decorations. We live on the third floor of Van Vleck Hall. It may be an old, quirky, building, but one major plus of living on its top floor are the nearly ten-foot tall ceilings. So, in exchange for bringing less clothing and other various items, we brought more lights, pictures, posters, etc. to take advantage of our ample wall space. As we put together our room those four blank walls became our canvass to display a little bit of us and by Sunday night we created our home for the year.

Today I turned in my major declaration form for Classics, one of the disciplines in which I intend to double-major with during my time here at Hope. College is the place where you build up your academic foundation for your working life. However, it’s also where you build relationships that will last a lifetime, connections that will benefit you in the future, inspiration for your goals and what you aim to achieve after Hope, and a network of people that will support you through it all. While college is all about academics and the end goal of a degree, it is just as importantly about taking advantage of your four years and decorating them with memories, friendships, inspirations and ideas. It’s the time to build up who you are and who you want to be. And I can’t wait to see where these next three years take me and those around me.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to follow my Twitter (@HopeErin18) or Instagram (e_delaney333) for more thoughts about and pictures of Hope.

~Erin