Stickers!

Lisa Frank™ Leopard

That magic word turns my head every time. I think my love affair with stickers began sometime around age 7. It was the 80's and Lisa Frank was making fantasy land reality, with pattern & color; flocked stickers and scented stickers were readily available and had yet to be relegated to speciality shops. In elementary school teachers had the packages with 1000's of of little smiley faces and if you did well on your quiz then a fun colored face would appear next to that bright red mark of 94%. In fourth grade I complied a sticker album with lots of variety: realistic and imaginative, colorful and playful. Recess trade negotiations were very intense. "I'll trade you a sheet of smiles for your big pink tiger." "Two sheets?" "Maybe... a sheet of smiles for the little blue puppy. I love it so much!" "Okay." And so the stickers made the rounds. Some gained places of permanence on Trapper Keepers™ and Mead™ Marble Notebooks. Some stickers became badges on our uniforms for special occasions. But most stayed safely tucked away in their special albums. Eventually the sticker albums gave way to talk of who liked who and a different sort of negotiation began  to take place. And so for eighteen years I ignored my love,  paying attention to "other, more important things." But recently I have stated boldly and proudly, "I love stickers." They are useful: as a merchandising & advertising tool (think about a Sunoco™ sticker on your cars back bumper; you could get a free tank of gas), as a ready indicator of political sentiment (elephant & donkey), & as a lifestyle choice (recycle/ if you outlaw

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Note: My sticker is slightly different

guns only outlaws will have guns).  When I think about the Nalgene™ bottles that we dutifully carried thru undergrad & the signifiers placed on those bottles, I am amazed. They were useful roadmaps thru the varied collegiate terrain. If someones stickers did not match your interests then no need to engage, or if you wanted to play devils advocate then it was easy to pick your target. What has recently lead me to proclaim, "I love stickers!" is the joy a well executed sticker brings to my day. Two days ago I received a sticker that had a calender on it, but not just fully displayed all in one glance but a tear off each month and all in a "Hello. My name is." sticker size. The first month was December and at the bottom it has "Season's Greetings" in a jaunty font with a classic string of Christmas lights. This sticker clearly compiled all of the attributes I find desirable in a sticker: Cute + Practical = Awesome. And with that formula clearly in my head I go forth knowing that there will be other happy unsuspecting moments brought about by stickers and would encourage you to do the same. 

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