I admit, I've always had a thing for stickers. I love them, but in moderation. Well, sometimes. When I was younger, I had countless coloring books and sticker books. One memorable coloring book was a full-size, giant color book of Strawberry Shortcake and friends. It came with scented stickers, so you can imagine how that was. I've included a picture for your imagination of 7 year old me sprawled on our apartment's living room carpet, Crayola markers and pencils scattered around me and this giant book.

(Upon searching, I could not find the old version that I used to have. The one I owned was horizontal and bigger, but the only images I could find of the old Strawberry Shortcake were on a different book. I did however include a newer version of the book with the updated character, but I'm a fan of the OG.)

OG Strawberry ShortcakeAmazon

Newer gal, but same ideaAmazon

That's not even where my love of stickers began. My love originates from the haven of all things cute and creative: kindergarten and first grade. I'm not sure how many people know, but I've lived in Athens for a long time. Most of my life, give or take two years. The first school I went to was Athens Montessori, and it was the place where I learned to love stickers. After a good day of practicing cursive or fun journal entries, our reward would be the sparkly star stickers that are found abundantly in every teacher's classroom, regardless of grade. You know the ones.

I would collect those first, keeping them just a dried little stickers because I couldn't commit to sticking them on a paper if they weren't placed in the journals/on the worksheets by my teachers. Seeing stars everywhere and being a Star at AMS led to my username that I now tout on every social media platform and website: SuviStar. After the initial star sticker start came the Strawberry Shortcake. I also had an insanely weird habit of I would putting on bandaids, wether it was because I was bored, thought I had a paper cut or had chewed my nails down to the bud. That's normal enough, but at any given time, I would have at least four bandaids on my fingers. It got a bit extreme, especially since I'd beg to get the Disney princess, Spongebob Squarepants, or Scooby Doo bandaids. I would also hoard the stickers that my pediatrician kept out at the front check in window for patients. The nurses would tell me I could take two and I would, but then I'd also make my dad take two for me. They had the ultimate collection of Barbie and Disney Princesses and Scooby Doo stickers. I like to think of those days as an intermediate sticker stage, paired with my growing love of medicine.

In high school, I bothered one of my close friends when he made the mistake of giving me three sheets of sea animal stickers as a birthday gift. For weeks after, I would sticker every single snack in all of my friends' lunchboxes, all of their school notebooks, and occasionally bombard a water bottle.

I've always found stickers to be a lesson of learning commitment. If you plan their placement or location too much, it never works out. Because my fingers were never nimble enough, most of the bandaids I tried to put on were crumpled and not smooth. My Strawberry Shortcake book was where I tried to practice the planning aspect of it, but that went about as well as a 7 year old trying to make serious decisions. (Yes, sticker placement is a serious decision.) While I am completely in love with laptop stickers currently, I don't think that love translates to stickers on another surface. For example, cars.

The family car my best friend had growing up was a 2003 Ford Windstar. I always thought it would be my dream car when I was older. Boy, was I wrong, but for a seven year old whose family had a 1991 Mitsubishi Gallant, the automatic sliding doors, ceiling video players, and hidden cup holders of the WindStar seemed like ultimate luxury. (Turns out, it's just overrated consumerism.) My best friend and her brother would sticker the heck out of the ceiling in the backseat. I'm talking every sticker they ever got, whether it was from the doctor, school or Kroger. I'm telling you, the clothed roof of that car was just sticky from the residue, but, at the time, it looked incredibly cool. Looking back, maybe not so much.

I can't ever imagine myself committing to bumper stickers on car exteriors. Even now, I have a student driver magnet on the back of my car and it's not even placed on the outside. No, I taped that magnet to the inside rear window above the light. So I think it's clear that I don't do bumper stickers. I do, however, enjoy seeing the far-left Priuses and their overloaded back bumpers-- often filled with words of empowerment for women and the other seemingly "unfair" politics that just advocate for equal rights. I don't enjoy the gross red pickup trucks with Kemp stickers and MAGA logos and Confederate flags as much-- or at all.

I also can't get onto the bandwagon of stickering water bottles. A common trend for college students right now is to blow $50 on a Hydroflask water bottle and then place random stickers on it. Even if it's not a ridiculous brand name, I've seen water bottles where you can't even see the water anymore because of how many stickers are on it. Practically, it just doesn't make sense to put something that can damage your stickers close to your stickers. Don't you guys wash your bottles? So do your stickers not fall off and leave behind that gross stickiness?

Regardless of all of that, I have fallen in love with laptop stickers now. I enjoy seeing what college kids are really into. Some are aesthetically pleasing, with the sea turtles and sunflowers and world maps. Others are more chaotic and seem to have no placement. The stickers on my laptop reflect my passion for women's health (as seen by the Viva La Vulva, PERIOD, This is What a Feminist Looks Like, Period Power, and MedLife stickers), my odd skill of being able to detect whenever a dog is in a half mile radius of me, my love of Young the Giant, and my love of the moon. As you can see from the picture, I'm not one of the maniacs who just places them at random. Choosing the stickers' permanent spots took me half an hour before I wrote this article, so yeah, I'm into it now.

Happy October!