Sticky Notes

I swiped my overly used FSU-card and strolled into the ultimate study room know as the Care

Lab. Sitting down quietly and patiently, I get a grip on my ego and un-willingness, knowing that I

have a butt load of homework to complete. As I prepared for what was in store for me, it made me

feel like I was being gripped by the throat and couldn't swallow. Sitting there choking on my own

imagination, I began to day-dream as I blacked-out. Sixth grade was a nightmare for me, I swear

nothing could even compare. It was so bad it felt like I was in the same grade for two and a half

years. So there I was sweating unconsciously in my seat, maybe even drooling a little, my whole sixth

grade experience flashed before my eyes. My teacher's name was Mr. Vickers, and that particular day

he had a "fun" activity for the class. He announced slowly, "I want everybody here to write me a full

descriptive paragraph, but you have to write it down on a single sticky note." I thought to myself,

"There is no-way this is possible, it was hard enough to write on college-rule as it is and he had

expected us to tell a story on this 5 x 5 inch piece of blue scrap paper." I giggled to myself, "It's not

happening, I can hardly remember my house phone number." So I did what most 12 year olds did,

waited for the teacher to turn his back and chunk the post-it note as far as the trash can.

Waking up from the five minute nightmare, I looked around to make sure noone had seen the drool

on my face. I told myself to relax and just get to work, so I got out my relaxed hat, my focused hat ,

and my "I have to get this done soon" hat. Although writing wasn't my favorite thing to do in the

world, it sure does come in handy and is a competitive and useful tool to use in the working

atmosphere. That's kind of when sticky notes became my best friend, yeah it took me until college to

figure it all out. They help me with writers' block because when you write on a sticky note you don't

think "Hey I don't feel like doing this because it's way too much to write." You just jot something

down, maybe a couple sentences or two depending on the situation, and eventually one thing leads to

another. For example, the more sticky notes you write the more practice you get, therefore it

becomes second nature as you develop more and more sticky notes. If you think about it the way I

do, adding like twenty-two sticky notes together may add up to a couple hundred words or even a

couple paragraphs. What I'm really trying to get at is that before I want to get rid of writers' block and

start my six page essay that's due Monday, I'll try and write the main idea or topic of what I want to

write about on some sticky notes to try and get me started. While only a couple of sentences should

be needed, it never hurts to write more. Even if you're not completely confident, it helps to just keep

writing your thoughts on numerous sticky notes, gather your ideas, and let your fingers do the talking.

Going back a couple years ago, about my third year in high school I started forgetting my keys in

my room every day before school. I would come home and every time I would be locked out of the

house. I hated that feeling with a passion, and the only person that I could call was my mom. (She

normally was at work until 7:00pm, reminding you that my high school was released at 3:00pm). So

there was a bit of a gap. After about the fifth time I finally promised myself I would never leave my

keys in my room ever again. To make sure that wasn't happening again; I had to come up with

something simple. Sadly, it took me about one year to figure out what that simple something was.

It was raining all day and I couldn't go outside, I was stuck in the dorm with no TV, no radio, and

no video games. All by accident, when I was in the middle of taking out the trash, I knocked off a blue

pad of sticky notes. I put the full bag of trash down, picked up the notes and wrote in big black

marker "DO NOT LEAVE KEYS," and I stuck it right on my wall where I could see it as soon as I

opened my eyes in the morning. I thought to myself, "Wow that was really simple," the smirk on my

face was priceless. I couldn't just stop there though, I began writing another little sticky note that

said, "Meeting tomorrow at 7:00pm Don't Be Late or Else!" I also began getting a little creative with

my sticky notes, just so they might be able to catch my attention a little better. For example, "If you

finish up all your assignments, it's gym time:)." I couldn't realize for myself what was happening but i

had become obsessed. I don't even know what had gotten over me, but as I kept writing sticky note

after sticky note I put them on walls, refrigerators, and even ceilings, I was in "The Zone."

After I had finished cleaning up the unnecessary over-flow of multi-colored sticky paper that was

just lying on the floor, I plopped down in my tiny uncomfortable bed for a while to take the time to

recuperate and realize what i had done. "Did I really just write almost fifty sticky notes? There is no-

way, I don't even like to write." It was definitely me though, because I was alone in the dorm and

there was no one to share ideas with, just me. I knew I was really getting into it because I hardly had

the time to acknowledge some of the random stuff I wrote down on the notes. I began going over

everything and overall it wasn't bad, there were some pretty good points I wrote down, and the most

important ones were already stuck in my head. I had written down enough notes to write my own

short-story and it all came off the top of my head. I said to myself, "Okay, you got this," took a deep

breath, grabbed the closest pen and paper, and then just began writing like a madman. I had gained

the confidence I needed to atleast start the paper and get passed the writers' block of mine. It

actually felt good, I was writing as if it was fun. Before I knew it, I had written so much that I hardly

realized it. It was now about 6:33pm and I noticed that I was almost finished with my 5 page first

draft. I decided to take a break and head to the gym so that I could work out and work on my

basketball game. Time always goes by fast when I'm in the gym, because I think of it as "Me Time."

It's a place for me to get away physically and mentally. A similar effect occured to me whether I was

having fun playing basketball, or making a sticky note hurricane in my dorm just brainstorming ideas.

At he gym I played a couple games and got a few good workouts in before it was closing time and I

had to go home I love having the refreshed feeling when I eventually leave the gym.

When I arrived at my dorm I looked directly at my wall that was filled with the important multi-

colored notes I kept. Each one was unique compared to the other. Some things i needed to remember

the next day, some were stuff I needed to remember a couple months from now, some notes also had

birthdays and holiday dates I often have trouble remebering. But, the main note that stood out to me

the most was the bright blue sticky note in the middle of all the other notes that I made purposely

stand out which read, "Finish Paper When You Get Home!" I smiled at myself because I definitely

knew had I not put the sticky note, I would have forgotten. In fact I didn't even remember that I had

to do a paper, that's how bad my memory gets sometimes. I felt the relief literally run down my

shoulders as I sat down and began my new found procedure before getting down to business. I took

another deep breath, grabbed my pen and continued to work on my first draft. I had to gather my

thought a little bit to find out where I had left off and how to start thos new paragraph of my story. It

hadn't occured to me yet, but i immediately picked up where I left off in my story like I hadn't left the

room in 3 hours. It was a refreshing way of getting my work done because I didn't have to keep

stopping and starting again, while constantly wondering what to write next. Wondering what to write

next about every couple of sentences can be exhausting, and i think that is the main cause of what

makes me hate writing so much.

There it was my beautiful first draft, and that's exactly what it was, it didn't look like it was going to

win a Nobel Prize or anything, but at this point in time it got the job done. I didn't have anything else

to do with my time, even though it was about 11:30pm on a Thursday night, but I still felt like doing

something productive. So I looked across the room at the three different color sticky note pads; Red,

Yellow, and Blue. They seemed to look right back at me, maybe I was just really really tired, but i

looked away for a seconde as if they were actually staring back at me. I felt silly for doing that and

wondered to myself why I had done it. So I lazily gatherd myself and sprung my way towards my

dresser, grabbed all of my "Handy Dandy" sticky notes, and retreated back to my bed. i pretty much

had all of the notes i needed for about 5 months in advance and they were all on one side of my wall.

So I thought that I had written enought about me for one day. I thought about something for a brief

moment, "What if i use these notes on my roommate?" I didn't want to right anything bad about him;

I was going to write some helpful note that would assist him in the future secretly.

By the time my roommate strolled I had already done what needed to be done and he didn't even

seem to notice at first. It wasn't until he reached the sink where he was going to get ready to brush

his teeth. On the mirror was a bright yellow sticky note saying, "Brush all of your teeth this time

Jeremy." He paused in mid-brush and stared at me with awe. He couldn't even talk with all of the

toothpaste in his mouth, but he spit it out immediately and asked, "What is this doing on the mirror?"

I looked up from reading my book and shrugged casually trying desperately to keep the smirk from

appering on my face. I think he got the joke though because he giggled almost silently as if I wasn't

there. I contiued reading, and also patiently waiting for the next surprise. My roommate then hopped

into his bed and paused for the second time as he looked down at his pillow to see an equally bright

red sticky note that read, "Place Big Head Here." All i heard was, "What the?" After that i lost it, I

busted out in an uncontrollable laugh and it came to a point to where he then joined in with the

laughter. We were bother laughing for what had felt like ten whole minutes, but in reality was only like

30 seconds. He then asked, "What's up with all the sticky notes?" I just responded with, "I don't

know, it's kind of a new thing I picked up that's really helpful." He kind of gave me this weird look like

i didn't really answer the question, which I knew I didn't. It was just my way of telling him that I was

tired and didn't have much to say after all that writing.

All in all i gained a new skill in writing after all of those years, sticky notes are awesome and in the

6th grade i would have never known that when I arrived at college sticky notes would finally come in

handy. It's something that not only is a fun way to write, it is also not as difficult as it seemd and can

easily help you with writers' block. I know if I keep this up and get better at it, writers' block will be a

thing of the past and I can honestly tell myself that i have become a better writer from something just

as simple as writing down a couple notes.