I’m a lover of anything that has to do with jotters. Amassing jotters is something I just do because I love having them at my disposal. But one funny fact is that of all the jotters I have at my disposal, I haven’t used one-third of them. Over the years, when I meet friends and family, and an indication of interest leads to actual possession, I rarely use those jotters except when the need calls for it. Call it an obsession or whatever, that is how it is for me. These jotters I love having at my disposal, aren’t just sheets bound in pretty/personalized covers. Some of them, or even most, mean more to me than just their covers.
There’s this jotter I’ve had for about eight years now. This jotter was gifted to me by a family friend I related with so much and began to see as an elder sister. When she gifted me the jotter, she was relocating to a different continent and saw it as something worthy of remembering her over. We talked a lot initially but sometime after, we drifted apart and didn’t talk much. But since she left, I dedicated that jotter to writing details of my life.
For someone who never really assigned the role of a diary to a specific book, and wrote whatever she felt in any treasured book at her disposal, I wrote things I was willing to share with a big sister in that note. I wrote about troubling moments, hoping that through her jotter, I would be comforted by her. I wrote of happy moments, longing to be celebrated by her. I wrote of personal relationships, seeking her opinions. Till today, I still have that jotter, even after I’ve lost all contact with her. I write in that jotter, not knowing how she would react now if she read some actions of mine I’ve scripted, but writing to hold on to whatever is left of the times we shared.
Aside this particular jotter, there are several others I’ve gotten from people who mean different things to me. There’s this particular one from my brother, because I see it as one of the ways of holding on to memories of him, through his drawings. There’s one from a secondary school classmate I still have to this day, just because I wanted something to remember her for and I loved it's binding. There are some I’ve asked from my parents because I loved how aesthetic they appeared. There are two I have just because of my love for red.
These two, although I got them to satisfy my lust for things in colour red, I have a feeling they'll still be purposeful when I get out of this era. I love the colour red now, my taste might change in two years time. If my taste eventually changes, they'll definitely serve as evidence of my red era because I still intend to hold onto them for a very long time.
When I saw this prompt, I had to self-access on the particular item I obsess over and the most glaring at that moment, was my love for fancy jotters. So, I responded to it. Fancy jotters, as unnecessary as they may seem to others, attract me and I can't help but be swayed most of the time.
Thanks for reading.
Image is mine.
