When I moved into my dorm room at Jones Hall, I did everything I could to help it feel like home. I stopped at the nearby Target for a floor rug and a cosmetic mirror. I stocked up on pretzels and candy, hoping for late-night movies and games with friends I hadn’t made yet. But when I woke up the first morning, one part of my dorm didn’t feel like home. It was quiet.
So I asked my roommate if she would mind music. I started tentatively, playing songs from my “happy driving” Apple Music playlist only off my phone. Immediately, being able to sing along to the chorus of “Style” (Taylor’s Version, of course) and fill the silence helped me relax. Within a day, I upgraded to my JBL-dupe Amazon speaker, playing music for others on my floor as I walked to and from the bathroom.
Then the girls from across the hall started humming along.
Basically every moment I was in the dorm, I played music off my speaker. I feel for my friend Nora Ahearn of Dallas whose room is adjacent to the bathroom, because she can hear me crooning Noah Kahan’s “Everywhere, Everything,” in the shower. My playlist “Not even at all” (a “10 Things I Hate About You” reference) helped us pretend we were in a 2000s rom-com, while “Cold outside,” my winter playlist, cooled us down on 90-degree days.
We threw dance parties to Taylor Swift. Belted out Hamilton while brushing our teeth. Held rap battles to Drake. I was known as “that one girl who always plays music”, and then just as Lila.
In an unfamiliar place, being the Dorm DJ made Jones Hall my home and helped me find my family.
