Left on random doors, bathroom mirrors and more, multi-colored sticky notes with uplifting messages started popping up in unexpected places across campus this past year. Those messages now continue in online spaces.
UTC Sticky Notes began as one student’s stealth mission to leave behind little notes of inspiration in her high school after she was inspired by a similar trend on Twitter.
The creator, who wishes to remain anonymous, continued her project when she came to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. But it wasn’t until she was prompted by an assignment in her Professional Writing course that she created an Instagram account to document and share the notes online.
The creator believes in the power of a single positive message.
“I really would like people to get encouragement and see a light in a very dark day,” she says. “I just know that college can be really tough, and I want to make it as easy as possible for college students.”
She carries an arsenal of multi-colored pens and pads of sticky notes in the front pocket of her backpack, finding inspiration for her messages and quotes on social media.
“For inspiration I have a bunch of Pinterest boards with my favorite quotes. They’re sometimes just something I need to hear at the time or something my friends are going through,” she says.
If you spotted them more frequently in girl’s bathrooms or hidden in the library, that’s no coincidence.
“Personally, I like to leave them [notes] in the girl’s bathroom because I know we can get down when we’re looking at ourselves sometimes; or in the library it’s a lot of fun too,” she explains.
“I know everyone gets very stressed about assignments or upcoming due dates and sometimes you just need to see ‘Everything’s going to be okay’ or ‘You look great today.’ Just a little note of encouragement.”
The legacy of her sticky-note project still lives on back home, where a neighbor continues to leave notes around her old high school. Because she’s a junior with just a few semesters until graduation, she’s started considering what will happen to UTC Sticky Notes when she’s gone.
“I don’t know if I’ll just take the account with me and spread it around wherever I go, like graduate school. But it would be cool for the legacy to catch on.”
She says it’s gratifying to see the sticky notes continue in her hometown and “neat to see the legacy live on and to pass the baton. I just have to find the right person here.”
