Though seemingly commonplace, this notebook means more to this University of Cincinnati student than simple spiral-bound sheets of paper. Now half of its original size, she sees the notebook as a constant in her life over the past six years. She fills it with random notes, reminders, to-do lists, and even notes from class. Checking it five or six times a day, it centralizes her and provides a “check-in” both academically and personally.
During her transition from high school to college during the COVID-19 pandemic, the notebook provided some sense of familiarity in an unfamiliar situation. It granted her consistency in managing her notes and assignments.
The notebook serves as an analog thoroughfare connecting moments of her life in a digitized age.
Listen to this student’s story in her own words:
This object is part of the “Transitions” section of the Artifacts of Experience exhibition designed by University of Cincinnati students in the “Introduction to Public History” course in 2023.
We encourage you to explore the other objects in our collection.
Transcript
Anonymous [Anon]: Just looking back for me, I think I don’t have too many things that have stayed with me from high school through to college because everything like changed, I ended up getting like an iPad to take notes. And so it was all very different. I think this was the one thing where I was like, this has been with me forever, kind of and so I would use it to take like, random little notes, reminders like to-dos, like anything. It’s just always been with me since like, sophomore year of high school,
[Anon]: So I started college like during the peak of COVID. And so I was just at home I didn’t end up actually coming here in person for the first semester. So I think I just looked at college the same way that I looked at high school for that period of time, because I was still at home. It didn’t feel like much different at all. And so I just continued doing the stuff that I did in high school for my college classes, which doesn’t always work because I feel like college is a lot more different and then the way you manage your time and everything. But this one definitely like helped me like, get through that I want to say because it was something that I was very used to or like was familiar with, essentially. And so I could just jot stuff down that where I always did like, and even though the assignments and stuff weren’t necessarily similar, it would still help me kind of keep myself on track.
[Anon]: I also did like a paper on this last semester, on like handwritten versus, like, digital notes, and I think definitely having that physical options like read stuff down and like, check stuff off. It just feels a lot different than clicking a button on your phone saying like a to do list app or something which I do have one of those but it’s more for like, just random reminders and not necessarily like stuff for school and like it’s usually like, I don’t know, like “drink water” or something. But this one is definitely more like the important stuff for class and stuff like that.
[Anon]: When I newly got it, I want to say like, I don’t, it’s a very like, it’s a thick little notebook. And it used to be a lot thicker. It was like double the size. It was a lot thicker. I’ll just say that. And in the beginning when I got it, I would like write stuff down and I’d be like, “Okay, this can’t be the first page of the book” and I’d tear off that page. And I’ve torn off so many pages from this book. It just like it’s half the size of what it used to be. And it doesn’t even have a lot of like the stuff that I had on it in high school. Because like I get mad about something and it just like, tear off the page like, “Oh, I didn’t get to do all this stuff today.” Tear another page!
[Anon]: I don’t know. Honestly, like where I’d even like the in what way I’d be doing stuff if not for this because this is like my central like, it’s almost like my second brain-ish. And so it just has all of my random thoughts like scribbles and reminders like I just always I feel like every day I look at this book, almost like five to six times. Just like even if there’s nothing on it, it’s like, “oh, like let me check in with myself” almost like with the stuff that’s in here. So I think it was very useful to me with that. Yeah, just like educationally and also just like, in life.