Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Stickers are worth their weight in gold.

No really.  Ask any elementary school worker.  During my observation hours last week, I was amazed at how excited these kids got about stickers; they sifted through the sticker basket as if they were searching for precious metal or jewels.  It reminded me of what the niños in our class in Los Tres Brazos would do for estrellitas (little stars) in their notebooks—even the most repetitive handwriting tasks or vocabulary exercises.  Almost without fail, a child will do pretty much anything you ask if you offer them a sticker.

Somewhere along the lifespan, stickers seem to lose their charm.  A sticker transforms from some kind of magical talisman into a flat piece of paper with an image on one side and glue on the other.  It's kind of sad.  (This may not be true for scrap-bookers.)

This was a part of my childhood that I thought was behind me.  I mean, I like stickers, but I only get excited if they have elephants on them.  Or if they're really really sparkly.  Other than that, stickers are stickers.  I do, however, love to watch kids with stickers.  They are magical, I suppose, but only second-hand.  In the grown-up world, stickers aren't worth so much.  Maybe I should learn how to appreciate them again!

When I got in my car to drive to work the other morning, I noticed the shiny green sticker on my windshield, the one that allows me to park on campus and near the speech clinic.  It's nothing much, just a green parking pass.  Much to my chagrin, I had to pay one hundred dollars for it.

Maybe grownups value stickers more than I thought....

3 comments:

  1. It's true, kids love stickers. Leyna had fun putting about 20 on my face one day, and I'm sure I looked magical. When I was a kid, I especially loved the scratch and sniff stickers. Also, I think bumper stickers are somewhat like stickers for adults.

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  2. Chiquita banana stickers are quite the rage. I wear them on Ash Wednesday. (Pardon the inside joke).

    Funny blog post!

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