After getting my own desk, phone extension and all, I never put any thought in toward personalizing my 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 cubicle space.

Sitting there those first couple of nights was the laptop I use for a computer, my phone, two small spiral notebooks, both of the football preview sections from the past two seasons, and a small collection of old pagination books left over by the previous occupant.

The only thing tacked to my wall was a list of phone numbers for others in the building (as well as our sister paper in Princeton).

One night, a paper tray was added to my desk. One of my news colleagues, Kathleen, made a big fuss one day to her fellow news wresters, saying my desk was too bare.

Kathleen tacked this picture to my wall …

Now, I’m left with having to create my own personal sanctuary, or else be the butt of jokes in all of editorial. Such a tough task, I thought.

In my adulthood, I’ve never been much of a decor person. When I was young, I had posters and a tack board – which I still have, after 20 years, in my bedroom. When I was in high school, I collected small, flat things that I could either tack to my bedroom drywall, or slide inside the frame of my tack board.

Everything came to a head when I moved to my current residence. Because the house is about 100 years old, there are walls that I can’t hang anything on. This is why my walls are almost completely white. I once had a Beatles poster (of Abbey Road) hanging in my kitchen, but fell apart in a hurry. When I moved, I had to scatter everything from my 12×8 bedroom into an entire house.

Things that once hung in my old bedroom aren’t up in my house now. Call it my transition from kid to adult. What good would it do me to go through the trouble of decorating the inside of my house – especially if I don’t have people over all of the time?

I don’t pause and think about the stuff already around my house, such as the Sports Illustrated cover with the Sox’s Bill Melton on it, or the Poison Apple Rock Theatre glass on one of my window sills – that was a resale item gone bad.

I have pictures of my family on my entertainment center, and had other important gifts from a now-broken friendship I had.

My bedroom once had three posters of newspaper clippings from the 1999 Class A Rock Falls Rockets basketball champions, as well as the commemorative cereal box. They’re now tucked in a closet because the box came opened up, and the posters kept falling apart. The only things surviving on my bedroom wall is the aforementioned tack board I’ve had for 20 years, and a small poster of Michael Jordan commemorating his 1995 return.

Plans to decorate my den with program covers of my sports events fell through when my computer crashed. Now, I just use my phone, my work computer, or my parents’ laptop for internet or typing. I don’t really use my den for anything anymore, and will likely move my desk – which once belonged to my great Granny Perry – to my living room or bedroom. That would probably spice up either room a bit.

So what about my work cubicle? I thought I could take some of the things from home and put them there. I talk to more people from my cubicle than I do my own living room these days. My journalism books on my bookshelf now don’t have a reason to be there, now that I have a work desk to put them on.

Also on my bookshelf is a box of Trivial Pursuit All-Star Sports Edition questions, from 1983.

Most of the old bedroom stuff from my parents’ house are stored away in boxes up in my attic. So I took a look inside those and tried to fish out a few things. Rescued were my New-Mor-Roc-Ster medals from my SHS girls basketball managing days, my old Prep Sports Online cap, softball game balls from the 2002 RF freshman softball team’s last game (coach gave me the game balls), and a letter from Bruce Scheidegger, who was SHS’s girls basketball coach during my high school days. That letter, and managing opportunity, led to working with Prep Sports Online, which led to working with the newspaper, and so forth.

Last, but not least, I know we can’t have any high school sports decor, because of professional reasons, but a picture of the 2004 Rock Falls varsity softball team will be on my desk as well.