Significant little chads

It must be hard to be carelessly left in a chamber of darkness.

Hole punch paper circles, also referred to as "chads," may seem like they serve absolutely no purpose to anyone. Ever. Sure, they may eventually make recycling bins thrilled to be full of so much waste, but I doubt there are many people out there who become thrilled with the opportunity of cleaning little chads when they've fallen out of a hole punch and end up strewn across the floor. Cue the vacuum cleaner.

Now, instead of living in the cold vault of isolation, these chads dwell with the dust mites and hair balls that have been sucked into another storage system until they are all eventually suffocating with even nastier waste products in the garbage heaps.

I'm so glad I'm not a chad.

Earlier this week, on a rainy day, one of my coworkers decided to open her umbrella on her way into the building right in front of my car. Unknown to her, another one of our coworkers had filled her umbrella with hundreds of little chads in hopes that she would open it above her head and have all of the little paper circles of pointlessness rain down upon her.

Funny how things rarely work out how we planned.

Instead, those precious little chads ended up all over my car. The best part? Because of the wet weather, they stuck more easily to my car. Needless to say, I wasn't elated when I found out about this. I myself don't even use the hole punch that sits on my desk at work. I don't think I ever used one when I was in school, either. Now that I think about it, aren't those things kind of antiquated? I mean, most things are in a digital format now. Oh well—I shall digress.

Now, I could have immediately cleaned the chads off my car, but let's be honest: I'm way too lazy for that. Besides, I honestly didn't have time before I had to leave for the day. So, I left them there, and admittedly became rather fond of them. They helped me to realize that there are some things in life that may seem insignificant but serve an actual purpose—even if it is just to warm our hearts. I started deeply pondering this verity a bit more and came up with a list of things that really aren't that integral to anyone's well-being but tend to have value in my life:

-T-pen (my special black pen that I have to use)

-Tie (my koala without whom I cannot sleep. Seriously)

-scratch-n-sniff stickers

-my iPhone (yes, there are people who actually live their daily lives without one)

-my thread ring (that's a story in itself)

-froyo

-superhero Band-Aids

The above list features many items that could easily be considered useless to some people, but I tend to be more comfortable when I have them. (I honestly am not sure these things completely pertain to this blog entry, but I needed to compile a few things that make me happy—it's been one of those days!)

I think the bottom line is that chads are a lot like some people--they may think they serve no real purpose, or others may see them as insignificant, but it's only because they aren't looking beyond the surface level to see the true beauty of the individuals. Everyone deserves to love and be loved. Everyone has a reason to be who he or she is. After all, chads once filled the holes of an important piece of paper; now, some of them got the chance to decorate my car for a bit and served as a reminder of how ridiculous and awesome my coworkers really are.

In fact, it might be time to release those chads that are currently suffering in the chamber of darkness on my desk.