Making Kindness Sticky

Maria Kelley and Afton Dyjak

With a pile of sticky notes on our table, and pens ready to write, we stared at the array of colors with curious anticipation. As we sat at our desk, we wondered what we could do with these slips of tiny paper. Our senior year has been far from easy, and we felt as though many seniors of Wethersfield High School have been emotionally and physically distressed.

We decided that with this pile of sticky notes we could do much more than just a quick reminder. Thinking of wanting to encourage positivity, we started writing positive affirmations on the sticky notes. There was apprehension while creating these enlightening statements, because we do not tend to see positivity throughout our day. At first we had to look up quotes and affirmations to say, because it was so difficult to thinking of something nice to say. Once we had our first quote, it was easy from there, and we wrote about 3 handfuls of sticky notes. Writing them was not only empowering, but it was refreshing having to be positive. Being positive for us, for our school, and for society.

Going into this experiment, we expected the sticky notes to be taken down within 24 hours. But we were wrong. As we went back in and counted them all, lined up across the mirrors, we realized that there were so many- you could barely look at your own reflection. Girls had taken their own sticky notes and had written their own versions of what they thought positivity and kindness should look like.

We wanted girls to pay kindness forward. Because kindness is contagious. Kindness inspires.

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