So, you’re looking for a place to hang out comfortably. You are on campus, prowling around with curious eyes, and, well, where do you go?

If you are anything like me, you have scoped out places to sleep on campus, places to hang out with friends, and places to dutifully do your schoolwork (which may or may not be in a last-minute panic).

In this article, my goal is to share some of the places I tend to hang out at on campus. Now, these may sound like ordinary places, but in fact, they are my SAFE places. And that is a very important distinction to make. Safe places on campus for me are places where I will be and feel safe physically and emotionally. Or at the very least, I won’t act out on self-harming thoughts.

I then want to challenge myself to incorporate new places that I have yet to deem safe and valuable, as well as incorporate other places outside of campus. And of course, I want to encourage you to do the same!

The first safe place I want to mention is the hidden area behind the Snowden auditorium in Wheatley. From the doorway to the right of the main entrance of Snowden is a fanciful place with comfy chairs at the upper level, where you can exit from the back of the auditorium. There is a lone table and some chairs with a view of the west side of Wheatley toward where the one-way road once was. It’s a good spot where a friend and I spend an hour hanging out before our first class this semester.

Another place in Wheatley I find safety in is the lounge area on the fourth floor around CPCS. There is an additional area through two double doors with a hallway all the way to the right housing a fantastic, secluded area to nap in. Gotta get in those naps!

Yet another Wheatley location, if you can find it, exists around the third floor past Gerontology. It’s this little outside venue with tables, and I’ve always found the view of this outside place to be nice, even if it’s just the walls of Wheatley you have to look at.

When I first began school at the University of Massachusetts Boston, I would often hang out in stairwells and get my friends to tag along. A few of the stairwells in Wheatley are glorious for photography. But McCormack also has nice stairwells! Also in McCormack, I find that the end of the hallways at the far end of the building on the first or second floor are nice places to hang out in.

Outside, I’ve always enjoyed the area near the flower beds by the benches and tables between the old science building, Healey Library, and Quinn. I have fond memories of photo shoots there, and it has proven to be a great place to soak up the sun rays when the weather is warm.

I feel it should be obvious that I find Craig’s office in Campus Center on the third floor in room 3407 as a safe space. I spend a lot of my time there, or down the hall at the Photography Club’s desk. For some reason we never have chairs at the Photo Club desk, but that’s okay. I just sit on the desk itself (I perch there like Hawkeye).

Additionally, the Counseling Center is a safe space, as well as the Quinn building in its entirety. I guess to me, all of Quinn is the counseling center, even if it’s not. The café down on the UL is pretty sweet though.

One place I’d like to challenge myself to experiment with is the cafeteria in the Campus Center. I don’t often hang out there. I’ve made a personal kind of legacy, of only ever going there once in an entire semester each time I’ve been at UMass Boston. But I think the distracting atmosphere could be useful for me when I need to get out of my head.

Another challenging place would be within the Healey library, even if I’m just there to fall asleep, as well as the Integrated Science Complex or University Hall. I don’t spend a lot of my time in those buildings, although I do enjoy the colorful lights in the ISC. That’s definitely a favorite spot of mine (for the photography, of course).

Lastly, as for some places off campus that I find safety in, I would say the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy and my local library in my hometown are good places. There are also a couple of ice cream places that I feel safe at.
It would be interesting to challenge myself to visit more cafes, stores, or places inside my home other than my room to find more safe spaces. I hope that something on this list spurred on thoughts of your own safe places in the world!