From paint chips to that mysterious brown streak in your wall, your dorm has inevitably sustained some injuries — here’s the year in review, told through the scars they left behind.

Wall Damage

Your move-in packet explicitly outlined that you should not use wall adhesives other than those provided by the College. But you knew that the sticky tack wouldn’t hold up your frat flag or corkboard. It definitely couldn’t support the tree branch your roommate brought home after the first storm of the year. So you turned to command hooks, masking tape, maybe even duct tape. Unfortunately, the paint on our walls can be as flaky as your Datamatch date. While trying to reposition your string lights, you accidentally ripped off some of the plaster. Oops indeed.

Another time, your roommate felt inspired to optimize her productivity by recreating Dwight’s megadesk from The Office. What resulted was a precarious setup of shelves and extra furniture procured from who-knows-where. But while channeling your inner Chip and Joanna and playing a knockoff Fixer Upper, you inevitably left some dents in the walls and door frames. But it was so worth it — your roommate became a certified machine that weekend.

Stuff stuck to your carpet

You started the year with a strict shoes-off rule in the dorm. One of your roommates promised to vacuum every week. But with psets piling up and orientation events to attend, the cleaning kept getting pushed to the next weekend. And with bodies constantly rushing in and out of the dorm for the next class or comp meeting, shoes-off became shoes-optional.

One Thursday evening, your roommate’s guest stumbled out of her room in a sleep-deprived delirium. On their way out, they accidentally knocked over your candle with their overfilled North Face backpack. Now, there’s hot wax all over your carpet, which had too many different non-carpet textures to begin with. After it dried, you tried to scrape it out with a knife you stole from Berg, but the stain would not budge. And, worst of all, it continued to accumulate debris throughout the year…

In another instance, your roommate opened an email from her dream celebrity PI, inviting her to work in his lab! In the fit of excitement that had you both yapping about the possibilities ahead of her, the gum came flying out of your mouth and lodged in the floor. Now that pesky wax stain has a new buddy to keep it company forever.

Door hinge

On move-in day, you might’ve discovered two desks in one of the rooms of your suite. First of all, who decided that it was plausible for two people to sleep and study in the same cubicle-sized room? Second of all, how did they fit the desk through the door frame? After multiple trials and more errors than you could count, there truly was no way to shimmy the second desk out of your shoebox. Even yelling PIVOT did nothing to help your case (thanks, Ross). So one option remained: remove the door. And it worked! You designed the room setup of your dreams.

But there was one downside. While reinstalling the door, you noticed one screw was missing. One hinge remained loose for the rest of the year, and the door slightly dragged on the floor every time it opened. But it was always like that, right??

Through constant dents and dings, your dorm survived even the worst you threw at it this year. But every ripped wall and sticky floor holds a story — celebrations, making this new space your own, and generational lock-ins. Over time, your dorm’s damage diary became something to chuckle about. But with move-out on the horizon, good luck with the Yard Ops damage fees!