Finding ways to create magic in ordinary spaces has been one of my daily missions for as long as I can remember. As a kid I’d hide in circular clothes racks pretending to be a spy while my parents shopped. In elementary school, a friend and I opened up an underground apothecary on the playground beneath the expansive play structure where we sold crushed up honeysuckle perfumes, dandelion braids, dill pickles heisted from the dining hall, and woodchip cigars for pennies. While my potion making endeavors were eventually shut down by the recess monitor I still push myself to find magic wherever I am.

In a gap year preceding college I had the privilege of living with @lovejoy and @mbbarr who, thankfully, also had grand visions of space. Together we hosted late night dance parties, sprawling mornings of tea with thick clouds of incense--dreams and musings suspended in the gray wisps that clung onto my clothes for the rest of the day. I came home from work on a dark winter evening to find an expansive snow labyrinth that @lovejoy built in our front yard. Simply breathtaking!

@mbbarr always a king with the incense

I’m now in my third year of undergrad at Wellesley college. While life gets busy with school and jobs, making time to build space is extremely important and I try to surround myself with other people who love to dream up transformations of our campus. Over the past couple of years I’ve worked with friends on many gatherings to give people a sense of awe amidst what can be a rather bleak daily life. In this post I’d like to share just a few of my favorites.

I. Secret Room

A year ago a friend and I stumbled upon an unlocked empty dorm room in the basement of a quiet building. Naturally, we decided to take advantage of the space before it was locked up again. In anticipation, we invited about 20 people to an event called “secret room” which created a buzzing cult-type obsession with this mysterious event. On a frosty night, we sent out a text to all those who agreed to play and sent them their first clue on an elaborate goose-chase around our entire campus that would culminate in the secret room. From decoding secret messages in the geosciences lab with a UV light to climbing into underground tunnels, to scanning QR codes nestled into the library, we created a campus that none of us had known. And of course, at every stop, libations for all. The secret room franchise continues to grow and we put on new adventures whenever we can.

Sadly my only picture from Secret Room--but it is a secret after all

II. Thanksgiving Fortress

This year I was lucky enough to move into a unique dorm apartment with two friends that vastly eclipses regular dorms in size and potential. I didn’t make it home for thanksgiving so was on campus left to my own devices. Luckily I was with a genius partner in crime and together we had a true Thanksgiving Spectacular. On our first night of break, we spent hours building the most magnificent blanket fort in my dorm. It took up the entire space and was big enough to stand under. It came with extraordinary amenities like a hammock, a projector and screen, beds and chairs to fit at least 10 people, doorways and fancy aesthetic lighting. It was incredible.

An outside look at the ornate structure

I think we must have used 10 sheets

A friend kicks back in the hammock

Basically a real fire!

III. Aquarium Party

Most recently, my two housemates and I hosted a huge aquarium themed party. We projected vibrant blue underwater videos, hung fish and strung delicate lights across our space. Kelp patches were created out of streamers and we crafted balloon jellyfish, and of course swedish-fish jello shots.

Floaty rings and swimsuits ahoy

My two housemates and I: the creators

The aftermath

IV. Slenderman Laboratories

Perhaps the most spectacular of all was this narrative-based immersive problem-solving event. Months in the making, two friends and I hatched a story-line of a “research unveiling” gone wrong. Reality-warping machines, full costumes, diorama flashback scenes, invisible ink clues, and a multicolored bonfire are just a few aspects of this all-night goose-chase to “restore reality” after one of the scientists is revealed to have manipulated the machine to destroy continuity in reality.

Early brainstorming

Using the college science center as the arena, we were able to set up lab experiments, hide survival kits, and project video clues for the participants along the way.

The "presentation"

What spaces have you transformed? And what’s next? Whatever it is--I hope none of us stop dreaming. There was a time not so long ago that I completely lost my will to create. That is just simply not a way I agree to live life anymore. Host infinite playdates! Hold onto that feeling when, amidst the absolutely ordinary, you know you’ve unlocked a dimension you never knew was there. There is enough magic to fill any space, it just needs to be summoned ;)