This is Life, Live Now.
I love office supplies. Pens, tape, notepads, paper, highlighters…I love them all. I have a weak spot for pretty journals, notebooks, and planners. But I especially love the planners that come with stickers. I love, love, love stickers. I still consider my desk from elementary school that I covered entirely in Lisa Frank stickers to be the most stylish piece of furniture I’ve ever owned.
So yeah, I adore stickers. The brighter and more fun the better. I just think they’re such happy little things. But here’s the problem: I never, ever use stickers. I buy them. I have them. I get them as gifts. I just don’t use them.
I have this weird fear (fear is definitely not the right word to use here, but let’s just go with it) that I might use a really good sticker on a to-do list or calendar or journal, and then it just ends up being a random Tuesday and I wasted that sticker…so I end up never using any stickers.
I do this with a lot of things in life. I save good outfits for when I might go somewhere exciting. I save good wine for special occasions. I save movies we’ve been wanting to watch until Fridays.
And I save my three-cent stickers for what I think might be good, exciting days.
It’s such a silly thing, such a cheap thing, and it makes me happy. But I’m afraid I might waste something good on a plain and normal day.
But why the heck not? So what if it just ends up being a random Tuesday? We only get so many Tuesdays, might as well celebrate them.
There’s something so simultaneously gut-wrenching and freeing about letting yourself truly think about how short life is. It’s heartbreaking to realize life will probably end before you’ve done everything you wanted to, but exhilarating and motivating to think of how much you can fill your life with right now.
It could all end tomorrow, but it hasn’t yet, so we might as well celebrate today. Drink the good wine, wear the cute outfit, watch the movie.
And use the stickers.
Leave a Reply
Feeling Uninspired?
Sign up with your email for a weekly pep talk, just for you. Delivered to your inbox Sunday night to combat the Sunday scaries!
I love stickers, too! haha they make me so happy and I love filling my planner with cute ones 🙂 Lisa Frank was my JAM in elementary school! But yes, life is so short!! Like, I'm somehow almost 25 years old??? when did that happen?! Good reminder that we need to live in the moment and wear our cute outfits whenever the heck we want! 😉
I definitely understand that "fear." I finally started putting my absolute favorite stickers on my laptop (in college) because I knew it'd be around for a long time. When I was a kid my favorite stickers ended up on my trashcan. I'm always saving the ice cream or special frozen appetizers for occasions. But then they just go uneaten! So silly 🙂
I do this with my favorite pairs of underwear. I save them, end up forgetting to wear them & they go unworn by the time I do laundry again. When really, I could have them worn, washed & ready to wear again already.
And had a serious sticker collection as a kid. 99% of it still sits in a shoe box in the house where I grew up. It's a damn shame. But looking back, probably best I didn't go around stickering everything.
Absolutely! Last year on my birthday, I went to open up a bottle of wine that I had been saving for years. It was gross — it had gone bad! So I opened up another one. That too had gone bad. Finally I got to the third bottle and that was still good. I don't save my wine anymore.
My mom is really bad with this too. She doesn't like to use her favorite purse or wear her favorite outfit because she's afraid she will waste them. I always tell her she can get another one. And you can always get more stickers!!
This is such a fantastic post! I'm definitely guilty of not "dressing up" on random days if I know I'm not going anywhere because I don't want to waste a good outfit and hair/makeup. But, you're right – why the heck not? Life is short, might as well live it while we got it.
Love the sentiment of this!
moremindfulyou.blogspot.com
Yes, take advantage of every single second!
Such a great reminder!
Wonderful analogies throughout this post! Use the stickers INDEED!
I'm guilty of doing this to an extent. I am working on it!
it is definitely terrifying to think about how short life is. gotta use the stickers! i don't like stickers in my planner haha but i do this with other things, so this was a lovely reminder.
i completely have that same sticker fear!!!! hahahaha you've always gotta wait until just the right time… but it never feels like it comes! 😉
I love this. all of this. I have the same "fears" and you have a really resonating point. drink the wine, wear the outfit, use the stickers.
Yes to drinking wine and getting all the stickers! Oh how I used to love Lisa Frank supplies – so pretty! I'm a total sucker for a pretty planner too, enjoy every second and the things that make you happy <3
Green Fashionista
Ah, Lisa Frank! My childhood!
This is suuuch a good point! I used to do the same thing with stickers when I was little! I don't really have any now, and I think that's also because I'd do the same thing and save them!!!
I do this with my good post-its and good pens. Glad I'm not the only one neurotic with her favorite office supplies! But such a good point – especially when we hold on to things as easily replaced as stickers!
Oh my goodness yes!! I love this. Thank you!!
I'm the same way with outfits and wine! I save them for the "special" occasions and then I end up forgetting about them. Some days you really just need to open that special bottle of wine (or use the good sticker!) just because! <3, Pamela Sequins & Sea Breezes
Love this! Sometimes, my fiance and I will say "let's wait until…" only to realize that life is happening, and we are exactly where we want to be. Cheers to less waiting and more doing!
I loved Lisa Frank so much as a kid! This is such a great analogy and message. 🙂
I AM THE EXACT SAME. I save eeeeverything, including the ink in my favourite pen for the "special moments." It's a problem. Glad I'm not alone haha!
Evelina @ Fortunate House
I love stickers and this post! You are so right with all of this! Sometimes I love wearing my fancy outfits or drinking good wine on random, regular days just to make them special!
xx, Caitlin
http://www.wandererandwolf.com
Oh girl. Oh girl oh girl. I feel you on this too much. I finally made a move on a really tough decision today because something was not only not making me happy anymore, it was making me miserable. And I had almost that exact thought: that life is just too short! So yes, lady! USE THE STICKERS!
Hahaha I love this! Also I love metaphors, so well done 😀
My husband and I had a conversation very similar to this a few nights ago…I wanted a glass of wine but thought I should save "the good bottle" for the weekend and he urged me to drink the good wine on a Monday – so I did just that! Love how you related this to something as simple as stickers – USE THOSE STICKERS ON A TUESDAY, GIRL 🙂
I'm soooo guilty of this! Saving wine, outfits etc I saved so many of my daughter's "good clothes" for something special and she ended up growing out of things before they were ever worn. Now she wears dressss on whatever days she wants just because.
I do this very same
Thing!!! Thank you for the reminder. Love this.
Back in the day it was Lisa Frank everything! I'm such an office supply freak – I get so excited just walking into a place like Office Depot! And yes, use the stickers! Life's too short not to. -xx Leah || Chasing Texas
Yes! I couldn't agree more. First, I love office supplies too. Going to bookstores is such a treat because I don't always get to be with books (which I also love) but I also get to see wonderful stuff in the supplies area. I love colorful post its, stationary, and cute school supplies like scissors even. It's good to know I'm not alone in this. 🙂
But I also end up not using most of them. Or buying clothes waiting for the right occasion to wear them. You're right. We can celebrate even in the most ordinary of days, because not everyone is blessed with the chance to see another day.
Oh this just made me so happy!!! I was like that for the longest time with stationary, stickers, fancy candles… now, I embrace them and use them as much as possible. Yay for stickers!!!
I totally forgot about stickers! Is that weird?? I used to love them growing up and now need to get some fun ones to have around the office!
Oh my word! I am the same exact way…with everything. I could have written this post. And it even goes as far as things with Mason. I will have an activity to do or save some new outfits of his for the ‘perfect’ day/time. And I even do it with pictures. I take a million pictures and have so many great shots, but I am always waiting on the perfect time to share it. Do I post it to the blog first? Or to Instagram? Or to Facebook? Love this post and this perspective!!
I used to have this same problem. I kept waiting to use things for the perfect day. I still have this Barbie camera that I never opened because I wanted to wait for the day when I would want to take all of the pictures. The issue was I never knew when that day was and now I'm 27 and wtf am I going to do with a nineties Barbie camera that takes a film I'm pretty sure no one makes anymore. It's too late. My chance is gone. When I thought about that it freed me to stop waiting and just do it when I want to! I still have my moments, but I'm trying. Also, Lisa Frank! Ahh! I'm glad she is slowly, but surely making a comeback.
I can so relate to this! I used to do exactly the same thing with school supplies, and my favorite clothes and favorite jewelry–I'd even 'save' candy that I got for birthdays or Christmases instead of just eating it. Thankfully I gave that up some time ago. I found that wearing a fabulous outfit actually helps make any old boring Tuesday pretty awesome. Favorite things were made to be used! 🙂