Long dead are the leather-bound notebooks, filled with the late-night scrawlings of an unappreciated genius. Lost are the notepads littered with irrefutable evidence of life, from grocery lists to friends’ addresses. We don’t have little books of handwritten poetry, scribbled hastily on the train to a soulless job. Gone are the exhausted yet peaceful diary entries after a day too beautiful, if ordinary, to forget. Instead, we have the Notes app.
One of the few apps that come pre-downloaded with every iPhone, the little yellow and white icon seems self-effacing at first. But as you grow, you find yourself needing a place to jot down a quick thought, something to remember later or a great idea at 3 a.m. that simply can’t wait till morning. Soon enough, that innocuous little app has become a catch-all for your inner thoughts, musings and reminders. The Notes app has become a modern equivalent of our journals, notebooks and memo pads.
If I were to open up my Notes app, it would be like wandering through a flea market in a foreign country. You’d see trinkets and tchotchkes with the occasional hidden gem. It’d be chaotic and vibrant, and while it’s a place you’ve never been, it’s not a novel experience and reminds you of the little thrift shops back home.
I have an explanation for a love triangle that’s really a love decahedron, gift ideas for my friends and family, books I need to read before I die, day trips in Oregon, goals and packing lists for trips past. Each of these are a tile in the mosaic that is my life. I can see these and look back at media I’d loved, quotes that inspired me and experiences that changed me. Or I can turn my gaze to the future and see the crafts I want to spend a calm summer day on, the colleges I hope to attend and a list of goals just waiting to be accomplished.
As mine has and continues to do, the Notes app becomes a catch-all for every thought you don’t want to misplace, idea you want to make tangible or abstraction captured and made real. A quick survey of those around me unearthed a bounty of equally strange and beautiful collections. People kept notes both like and unlike mine, of packing lists, breakup monologues, poems they liked or had written, bucket lists, book recommendations and a whole host of fragments of daily life. And after talking to many close friends and others, I’ve realized that the result of these dozens of notes and ideas is an amalgamation of the thousand pieces of a soul.
Being a person is complicated. You need to have different facets of yourself for different scenarios. You’re not going to be the same version of yourself around your parents, teammates, teachers and friends. The varying environments we face every day require us to pick and choose which parts of ourselves to display and which to tone down. This can lead to an exhausting charade, constantly putting on and taking off different masks.
Often, the only reflection of yourself is in the funhouse mirrors of your own creation, all the different versions of yourself that only show a glimpse of the true you. So let this unassuming little app take a picture of yourself: raw, unaltered, unedited. Let the dozens of to-do lists, records of inside jokes and pre-planned monologues be an imperfect and natural story of your life. This beautiful junk drawer of an app captures the throw-away moments, your musings, what’s on your mind and, a lot of the time, silly stories as well. The Notes app often captures the little things, the funny things, the stories and anecdotes you’d forget otherwise.
When a person in my friend group got her first job, a long standing feud was born. She was far, far too benevolent, and insisted on paying for everyone’s food when we went out. My fellow free-loaders and I tried to reverse pick-pocket her, stealthily slipping $20 bills into her pockets, but that was unsuccessful. That’s when we turned to the Notes app. Each of us now has a dedicated note tracking every time she covered the tip, paid for a coffee or snagged the bill.
These notes have become records of the times we’ve gone out with each other, logs of memories of laughs and smiles. It’s a long-standing tradition that will inevitably be something we’ll look back longingly on when we’re off across the world leading separate adult lives. The Notes app will continue to unite us, both through memories and art. Because just as the Notes app is constantly giving us a glimpse into typical life, it also gives artists a tool to develop their work, to jot down any thoughts as they come.
“I have such a strong inner dialogue and I’m always thinking, so if I [want] to turn that into something creative I can kinda use the notes app as a tool to get out all the creative flow, all the stuff that’s going on in my head,” said Summit junior Leighton Allen, a creative who dabbles in poetry and songwriting. “Technology’s made it easier because I can just sit down and write something real quick… It’s just easier to be creative because it feels more accessible.”
Art, like Allen’s poetry and songwriting, is a key part of the human experience. It is a reflection of your inner self and a glimpse into your inner world. Your rough drafts and ramblings are a key part of your identity. You don’t limit your mind to make sure every thought is refined and polished, but you hold the work you put out into the world to that standard. The Notes app should act as a little extension of your mind, a place for you to be messy and complicated and unapologetically human.
Editor’s note: Since this article was written, Leighton Allen has since joined the staff of The Summit Pinnacle.
