hangs on the wall beside my bed.

Farthest away is a giant framed cross stitch, probably 11″ across by 16″ up. The title may have been “Night in Paris.” It’s filled with many colors, a red and blue banister overhangs a restaurant while lavender spires poke up over the orange buildings with navy blue roofs. The ground looks wet, the streetlights reflected off the cobblestone pavement that someone is walking away on. I’ve always been fond of rainy nights.

Closer is a depiction of a tree. It is made from a paint by number jewel kit. The leaves range from a stunning teal at the highlights down to a deep forest green in the shadows. It lays upon a background reminiscent of parchment. This project is also framed and is around 12″ by 12″.

Above hangs a painting on canvas, one of the few things on the wall made by me. It is one of my favorite things on this wall, as it displays a beach on a bright, overcast day, only a tinge of blue sky on the horizon. The light bounces off the ocean, and tall grass seems to sway in the foreground, parting slightly in the middle where a pathway might be found. Five seabirds hang in the air near the middle of the painting. The artist is unknown but signed their work in red paint near the bottom right. There are many days that I wish I could step into this painting, if even for only a moment, to smell the breeze.

Towards my pillow hang two small cross stitches, the size of index cards. The one above is two separate images, both with blue and pink flowers and bumblebees. The one below is of a camera, a lavender top and bottom with a thick yellow stripe running across the middle. Short projects simply to keep me busy that fit on this spot on the wall.

Under the twin cross stitches is a painting of my own creation, a night time scene. Painted on canvas, begun with black paint. Skyscrapers can be made out in the distance, the glow from the windows one of the only things telling you they’re there. A highway runs into the horizon, packed with busy cars heading to home, to work, to a party, to silence. A yellow cab sticks out from among them, headlights on.

Closest to my head at night sits a print of a Spinosaurus, a black outline filled in again with black, but with a skeleton colored rainbow inside that. A matching set of sparkles are drawn within close proximity of the dinosaur. It is an illustration by @thingsby_diana on Instagram. No questions need to be asked of why a rainbow dinosaur is hanging at my bedside.

Above the dinosaur is another painting of mine. This one I remember taking two separate days to finish, as it was a long piece. Painted on canvas, twenty different album covers are depicted, each being one of my favorites at the time of the painting. Some would undoubtedly be different if I painted it now. A few of the artists include Adele, Coldplay, Conan Gray, and fun. Five different Coldplay albums are painted, so maybe I do have a favorite.

Finally, the right and uppermost picture hangs in a frame made by myself and the people within the picture. It is made of cedar wood; four pieces held together by wood glue, the words “Kennedy Cougars” laser engraved into the top and bottom, respectively, and a varnish applied over top. Inside is a picture of me and three of my best friends from high school. The picture frame was our final project in engineering class and caused me a lot of stress. If anyone ever asks me to make a wooden picture frame again, I will make a run for it.

These are all fragments of me, of my personality. While they look pretty on the wall, they don’t display the frustration of untangling the cross stitch thread, or trying to fix a painting mistake, or stealing the beach painting from my mother’s garage sale pile back six or seven years ago and hiding it until I had a spot for it because I couldn’t let it leave the house after it hung above the couch in the basement for as long as I remember (I told you I love that painting.)

I’m slowly running out of space on that wall, but that’s alright. I probably won’t be spending a lot of time in this room the next few years. Maybe before too long they’ll follow me out to a different home with other people. I can hope, at least.