In My Room

My sons are about to get their own bedrooms for the first time (not counting the 2 or so years my older one had before the trauma of his sibling's birth). The two of them are beside themselves with excitement over this event which has prompted me to wonder about this feeling of having one's own room.Because I was the only girl in my family -- and because space allowed -- I got my own bedroom while my brothers had to double up. I found this very fair, seeing how I had to deal with the absence of sisters -- something I identified as a gyp. I do believe my brothers had different feelings about the trade-off, but the hardship to my experience of having my own room was that I was not allowed to pick the color. The one picked for me was PINK (and I have only recently made my peace with the color so that I am able to wear it occasionally). And yet, the real pay-off to having my own room was the privacy. Within that privacy I played out elaborate make-believe scenarios that no one would have gone along with (or would have insisted on having a say in what we played. Screw that).I realize now that having lived in small apartments and a less-than-rambling house during these 18 years of marriage, it has been a long time since I had a room of my own...which prompts me to ask anyone who cares to answer: What would you do with a blank slate room of your own?