Stickers are, essentially, just papers that stick. However, for a period of time during my childhood years, they have played a rather significant role in my life. Stickers and sticker collecting books were common gifts, and building my sticker book to be the most decorated book on school-grounds was, for a short while, one of my greatest aspirations. Some of my most prized stickers included furry mid-sized animals, glow-in-the-dark cartoon characters, shiny metallic robots, as well as depictions of fairies glossed with a layer of shimmering sparkles.

Looking back, I would consider sticker collecting as one of my generation’s earlier ice-breaking devices. Conversations would initiate, new friends would be met, and past times would be spent—all through the process of trading stickers. To us, it wasn’t just another hobby—it was a form of communication.

I recall giving up one of my most prized stickers to my father as a birthday present during the peak of my fascination with this hobby. I was disgusted at first that, instead of choosing to store the sticker on a sticker collecting sheet, he wasted it by sticking it to the interior of the car that he had just purchased. I don’t remember where the rest of my collection had disappeared to. Today, the only item left serving as a symbolism of that small, but significant part of my childhood sits in the form of a tiny limousine sticker, stuck under the radio knobs of a certain 1999 Toyota Sienna.

– Esther