Stickers equal smiles

I always knew that stickers could cure sadness.

For some reason, today was just a "blah" day. I woke up a little late and barely had time to get my run finished and make it to work on time. So, I already felt rushed. Then, my first two classes didn't quite behave as well as I prefer, and tasks that I need to complete just seem to pile on at the most inopportune times. I feel like I already have enough stress in my life, but more keeps jumping on board.

Oh, and grad classes started back up last night, and I started thinking about all of the work I need to do for my capstone project (essentially my thesis paper) on top of the reading and assignments I have for the other class. I know I really shouldn't allow such matters to stress me out, but I can't help but get a bit of anxiety when I think about the limited amount of time I will have once track season officially begins and we are at meets almost every weekend.

Breathe.

Today quickly turned into one of those days that you really just don't care to happen again. Your hair looks bad. Your head won't stop hurting. You just want to curl up in bed and fall asleep for a really, really long time. You find out news you didn't want to hear. You realize that you don't have all of the things for which you hope in life. You feel guilty for not being as thankful as you should for the things you actually have. You face reality.

Sigh.

Unicorn happiness

One of my students noticed that I was a bit down in spirits, and she asked me if everything is OK. I told her it would be, and she then asked me if it would be OK if she printed something that would make me feel better. Of course. The next thing I knew, she was cutting out a picture of a unicorn and taping it to me. "Ms. Merrill, whenever I'm having a bad day, you always give me stickers. I don't have any stickers, so I'm just going to put tape on this so it's like a sticker."

If that didn't make me smile, I would question if I had a heart.

If that weren't enough, she then printed out a rainbow, colored it, wrote "You're Awesome" on it, and taped that to me, as well.

I always notice that stickers make my students happy, and now I know why. Sure, they are in high school, and I am 27, but there is something about the magic of a sticker that can brighten up a sullen mood and create joy where it wasn't before. Stickers carry such specialness with them, especially when they come from the heart of people who truly care. I think that was one of the best things about my stickers today—my student actually cared that I was having a bad day, and she wanted to make it better.

This is just one more reason I feel so blessed to have the job I do.

Stickers rock.

I think God constantly places stickers and sticker-givers in our lives, though they aren't always so obvious as pretty unicorns and personalized rainbows. It's the women at Payless who gave you a 40 percent off coupon simply because she had extra; it's the man at Tom Thumb who let you cut in line when your hands were full because you were too thoughtless to get a cart; it's the little girl at the playground who kisses her brother's skidded knee to try to make his wound heal faster; it's your parents giving up their extra hours of sleep on a Sunday morning to come stand in the cold and watch you run a race; it's that friend who drops everything she's doing when you call her crying in need of an ear; it's that God who delights when you sing praises to Him at the top of your lungs, even though you don't even know what it means to be "on key"; it's that God who gives you these stickers when He knows you need them most.

I know stickers aren't the cure-all for every pain and trouble in this world. In fact, they are really just temporary items that only make you forget reality for a moment or two. But they are fabulous.

Stickers are for all ages, and there are no requirements to being a sticker-giver—other than they should come with love. So, in a way, I guess stickers do hold more value than truly meets the eye, because love carries with it such magnitude.

And love—even in the form of stickers—can sure make a heart smile in an instant.