stickers

 As a child in the 80's, stickers were EVERYTHING. Be they puffy, shiny, scratch & sniff, or just a favorite cartoon character, stickers were something to cherish and perhaps trade, and were often displayed in a sticker album.

The problem with most sticker albums was object permanence: once you removed the paper backing and adhered the sticker to the page, it was there forever. I remember one sticker that was so precious to me that I refused to put it in an album. It was a silver castle, in raised metallic glory, on a turquoise background. I probably still had that sticker somewhere in my desk well past my college years because I was to afraid to stick it on anything.

Today, stickers are still popular decorations for water bottles and laptops, and I have a few stickers displayed on these items. But I have an envelope with dozens of preciou
s stickers waiting for the perfect, permanent place to be displayed. Some of them have been in hiding for more than 8 years. These are lovely reminders of places I've been, and things I enjoy but I'm afraid to I'm afraid to waste them, so I keep them tucked away.

The cover of my laptop broke a few years ago and my thoughtful partner ordered and installed the replacement himself, but in doing so two things happened:

• I lost the three beloved stickers that were on the old cover
• The new screen was slightly cracked due to installation errors, but was still very usable. 

He felt bad about the cracked screen and offered repeatedly to replace it although I insisted it was not necessary. Part of my replacement reticence was due to the potential loss of even more stickers, and even though I didn't plan to have the computer repaired, I STILL didn't put any stickers on the cover for almost two years.

Until today.

Today, I pulled out the slumbering stickers and sorted them by category (schools, places I've visited, brands, Scouts, etc.) and then selected a few that had similar enough color schemes to be aesthetically pleasing to my eye, and put them on the cover. Some of the others I threw away because I don't want them anymore. Some of them I need to toss but I'm not ready to yet. And that's okay. They're stickers. They're not forever. They are meant to be enjoyed, not tucked away. There is no perfect place, or perfect arrangement. There is only now. Stick the stickers and enjoy them.