DELIA BINETTI

Delia Binetti lays on her bed, engulfed by memories. She is surrounded by countless stories: birthday parties, vacations and hang outs.

She has an essay to write, a math test to study for and a science analysis to finish. But instead of working on her homework, she lays in her bed trying to clear her mind.

“I basically think of [my room] as my safe zone,” Binetti said. “I can go there and just forget about what’s going on.” Binetti is a junior at Community High School (CHS). When anything in her life causes her stress or anxiety, instead of breaking down, she goes to a happy place: her room.

Binetti originally shared her room with her sister, but when she moved out to go to college, she took with her all the decorations that made the room lively. This left Binetti’s room empty. In order to make her room feel comforting again, she decided to take some of her colorful decorations and scatter them around the room. As the years went on, she has continued to add more items.

“Whenever I get sad, need inspiration or just need to feel love, I look around me and I read things that will make me feel better,” Binetti said. She found an easy, cheap way to decorate her room and make it feel like home. Instead of going out and buying random items  that would make her room look cool, she took things she has received from others that have meaning. Binetti’s room is filled with letters, sayings, pictures and drawings.

Above Binetti’s desk sits a cork board filled with polaroid pictures.

“I used to put them in a little bag and just save them for me to look over,” Binetti said. “But then I realized that it was kind of pointless. Why would I hide away these life memories? So I decided to start putting them on this board.”

The board sits above Binetti’s desk and when she is doing homework she likes that she can look up and see all her friends. When she finds herself stressed during a homework session, she can look at her board and get her mind off all the bad things going on in her life.