Tasha Dhanraj has a change

I have moved my bed from one side of the room to the other. I know. Groundbreaking stuff. It might not be worthy of the front cover of The Sun, but I am stunned at how much this small step has changed the entire look of my bedroom. It feels smaller, more fashionable, but most terrifying of all – more grown up.
Once I moved my bed, I suddenly felt that all my posters and flyers that smothered my wall were juvenile.

While I appreciate that no matter how minimalist you are with your bedroom, it always says a lot about you as a person – do I really want anyone who enters my room to instantly know that I like Donny Osmond, have seen Jimmy Carr live more times than I’ve met certain relatives and once got a certificate in PE that I’m way too proud of?

But then again – why not? Every flyer on my wall, every ticket stub sellotaped to the frame of my mirror and every fraying poster on my ceiling tells a story of a gig that I saw, or something I played a part in and am proud of or a song that meant something to me. In a way, my room is like the film Memento where a guy tattoos things all over his body to remember stuff – well, a far less permanent, less depressing version at least. I have plastered my room in little ways for me to remember the events that made me happy.

“It feels smaller, more fashionable, but most terrifying of all – more grown up”

But let’s face it; posters of famous people you’ve never met being used as decoration are staples of being a teenager. When you’re an angst-ridden adolescent with self-inflicted loneliness and a desperate desire to be different from everyone else, it’s things like our bedroom walls that give us power to show our “true self” in a safe way, along with listening to Keane, wearing a lot of black and writing in a diary.

I’d love to conclude this with some sweeping statement about how, despite all this, I kept all my flyers and posters up, because they reminded me of so many good things that they made my room the sanctuary that every bedroom should be. Unfortunately, I’ve had to accept that truthfully I am too old for them. The version of me that needed to express myself on my walls in order to feel at home is gone. I am older, I am more confident and I have far better taste when it comes to interior design.