Many of you participated in a role exit when you made the transition from high school to college. You left behind the role of offspring living at home and took on the role a somewhat independent college student living with peers in a dorm. Sociologist Ira Silver (1996) has made a study of the central role that material objects play in this transition. The objects that students choose to leave home (like stuffed animals and dolls) are associated with their prior identities. They may remain deeply attached to me. say, "This is these objects but do not want them to be seen as part of their new identities at college. The objects they bring with them symbolize how they now see themselves and how they wish to be perceived. CDs, tapes, and wall posters, for example, all are calculated to say "this is me