Tucked safely in a folder labeled “Write” on my phone, sits the most sacred of all apps: Notes. This is an underappreciated app. The more mainstream iPhone applications like Messages or Calculator do not compare with its sheer power and potential. Yes, many know the territory of the Notes app well. Mountains of folders with cryptic titles nestled inside folders with even more cryptic titles. Endless fields of white pages scattered with to-do lists, half-baked poetry, and lists of seemingly arbitrary items. Need to write out a grocery list? Notes app. Need to mark that catchy song lyric? Notes app. Need to excise the shower thoughts that have polluted your mind? Notes app. Taylor Swift is known to begin most of her songs in the Notes app. The Instagram apologies of disgraced reality television stars also mark their beginnings in the Notes app. It is a land of infinite possibilities unencumbered by word limits or loading wheels. In a lightning bolt of inspiration or in the heat of the moment, it is reliable and assured. It is a world at the tip of a finger, one swipe away.
The small box striped in yellow and black on my phone holds no less than my brain if my thoughts were written in Arial font. When scrolling through my vast archive of haphazard notes, a few titles stuck out to me. “Pain,” for example, labeled a poem I wrote in a midnight fever. The note, needless to say, was drenched in melodrama and angst. “Questionable Things Mr. Goldsberry Says” denoted every off-color comment my sophomore-year health teacher made. Mr. Goldsberry, a year away from retirement and chock-full of stories from his teaching experience, required the making of a very extensive list. Another favorite note of mine is titled “Things People Say That I May Have to Bring Up in Court” with winning additions like “If you take out the security cameras, it’s your word against the dead guy’s” and “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, this is a great place to start mass panic.” On and on my Notes app goes. Disparate Latin phrases I wrote down to sound impressive mingle with reminders for things I’ve forgotten and lengthy prose about autumn afternoons. Story ideas and character descriptions are mixed in with the screenshots of every text my best friend sent confessing her crushes to me (just in case I need them at the wedding). The Notes app holds my treasured memories alongside forgotten afterthoughts and my unfiltered imaginings alongside random jottings.
What I have come to learn through my appreciation of this unassuming app is that the Notes app is a reflection of humanity. It is complex because humans are complex. It is a place to rest my anxious thoughts, house my deepest goals, and entrust my tired musings. It is a collection of fragmented moments from life, captured like fireflies in mason jars. The brief reminder, the running list, or the fleeting thought is forever preserved on a white screen to return to again. There are no limitations either to my expression in the Notes app. I can be a free, random, and complex person with free, random, and complex thoughts. There is a beauty to that wilderness. I have come to love the Notes app, not only for its ease but also for what it stands for. The Notes app is a beacon of exploration and a record of my spirit. I treasure it, just as I treasure the untamed parts of being human.