You could walk into any lecture hall, library, or Starbucks on campus and see countless laptops covered in stickers of varying colors, sizes and styles. No matter the major, greek affiliation, or club, most college students that you will run into will have at least one sticker to show off.
Stickers are making a comeback now more than ever: in free speech spaces around campus they hand them out like candy for anything like music festivals, student government organizations, and philanthropic events. You wonder why? They want us to put them on our computers, no actually they know we will. They're conversation starters, ways to illustrate ourselves to the world, and sometimes even statement pieces. Sometimes they only make sense to a certain culture or academic group of people. They could even reference specific movie and TV fandoms. And sometimes they are just artsy, funny, or make us happy. Whatever it is, they are filling the holes of our identities through trendy styles and popular memes.
I'm in no way bashing sticker collectors and enthusiasts. If you've ever seen my MacBook in Marston Science Library you'd know just how obsessed I am with them. It was actually my personal obsession with them that got me thinking of how much of a deeper meaning they could have for college students. You see, I'm constantly searching for a new sticker that will tell the world "who I am". I rearrange and retire older stickers that don't describe the most genuine version of me. I become so frustrated when I run out of room or don't like the aesthetic of the layout.
Is my identity so rooted in overpriced paper and glue that I feel lost without their existence? Not exactly, but it does make a point about our identity. The stickers on every college student's computer reveal just a little bit of the person they were, are, and will become. If anything, they are an avenue for us to discover who we want or could be. In college, we are constantly bombarded with questions about "who we are" and "who we want to become". News flash. I had no idea when you asked me a few weeks ago, and I still have no idea now and guess what, that's okay. We don't have to sell ourselves to the world. Be who you are unapologetically and you'll realize it is truly the most freeing experience. Stickers are placeholders for pieces of our identities, but that may not be such a bad thing, as long as we keep it in moderation. We also have to remember that stickers don't define us. Who we are as people do. So don't stop sticking your stickers in every possible free space of your laptop, but don't give them the power to decide who you want to be.