I associate Coldplay’s debut album, Parachutes, with several things, including the beginning of my concert-going experiences, corduroy pants and pea coats, frenzied kisses, the smell of autumn and, above all, passing notes in eleventh grade biology class with my friend Ricky.  Ricky used to sporadically include lyrics from songs off Parachutes in our notes, or rewrite the words to “Yellow” in a way that beautifully mocked the excruciatingly boring lecture on mitosis we were sitting through.  (Clearly, we were paying attention in class.)

We passed notes throughout that entire year, and, at the end of the term, I collected the whole bunch and put them in a box, which I gave to Ricky for safe keeping.  Turns out, he found said box a few days ago, and I am absolutely dying to see what we wrote many moons ago.  (Once I see the notes, I’ll make sure to share some hilariously high-school-ish tidbits on here.  I’m pretty sure there is an entire debate where I’m freaking out about prom, and Ricky is kindly talking me off the “Oh my God, what am I going to wear???” ledge.)

But Ricky having found our box of notes got me thinking about how much fun passing notes used to be, and how much fun it still is, when you scribble something on the side of your notebook to a coworker during a particularly boring conference call or to a friend during choir practice when the elderly lady next to you says she thinks your shoes are sexy, and that she used to be the sexy-shoe-wearing type of gal.  Like letter writing, there is definitely an art to writing a truly good note, for passing, because you have to get all the juiciness out in a few short lines.  Kind of like haikus.

If any of you find notes you passed during high school or college, would you mind sharing them here?