Distraction Sticky

“Pfffft!”

“Ahahah!”

I wiped the tears from my eyes, then the spit off my screen. It was the end of our last study session, and Seri was streaming the sixth episode of a gag comedy. Each scene began with the premise of students doing regular activities, then subverted your expectations with eccentricity: rock-paper-scissors evolved into capital punishment, applying makeup resulted in eldritch transformations, chewing gum in class led to emergency room visits… et cetera.

We watched an episode every hour or so, which was faster than expected. While it was a great show to unwind with, the comedy’s intensity had made it hard to settle into studying afterwards. This episode was particularly funny too, so it was good that we were done for the day.

“…that was too good,” I said.

“Ahhhh…” Seri clutched her stomach. “Man, my abs hurt…”

“You should come to the gym with me sometime,” I suggested.

“Sure. Does Wednesday work?”

“Yup,” I said. Her eagerness impressed me. Usually, it took quite a bit of convincing for my friends to join me in the gym.

“Wow,” Seri commented. “I hardly see you smile like that.”

“Like what?”

Her eyes darted up in thought. “Mm… at school, you usually do this thing where you slightly widen your eyes and curl your lips… it’s an easy-to-approach, happy-neutral face.”

“…thanks?” I didn’t really know what to say, but I kind of understood what she meant. It was similar to the expression I wore at grad.

“Ah! I mean it in a good way! It’s just that when you’re with me, it’s usually a sad-neutral. This is my first time seeing you laugh so hard.”

Huh. Was that how I seemed?

”I’d say I’m pretty happy around you,” I said. Maybe it’s because she felt so energetic all the time, I didn’t feel the need to compensate.

She pursed her lips and glanced away. “That’s good… oh! How did you feel about the structure?”

“Of the study schedule?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm…” I looked at the time. It was four-thirty in the afternoon. We were flexible with our timers, so the frequent breaks didn’t disrupt my flow as much as I thought.

“You can be honest,” Seri assured. “It won’t hurt my feelings.”

“It was great. I think calling you helped a lot with avoiding distractions.”

“What kind of distractions?”

“Sometimes when I’m studying, I’ll get the urge to procrastinate by doing laundry or cleaning my room. Honestly, I might’ve given in today if we weren’t video calling.”

Seri’s dark-chocolate irises glistened. “Ohhh, I get that all the time! Sometimes I’m tempted to search up random questions like tomorrow’s weather or the shelf-life of ginger.”

I snorted. Her explanation was a more accurate, far less shameless description of what I really dealt with… I’d never admit it though.

“How do you deal with those intrusive thoughts?” I asked.

“You should keep a distraction sticky!”

“A distraction sticky?”

“Yeah! I keep a virtual sticky on my tablet, where I can write down anything that pops into my mind.”

I furrowed my brows. “Does that help? I thought writing stuff down would make you think about it more.”

“Nuh-uh. I learned this from a teacher-influencer! It feels like closing tabs on your browser - like you dump the useless stuff on a sticky note, and it frees up memory to focus on your study notes.”

“Hmmm…” I lazily pondered her explanation. I remained sceptical, but she seemed to be making sense. “Interesting. I have a sticky note function on my laptop too, so I might try it.”

“You’re welcome,” she huffed proudly. How was she still smiling? I probably had the thousand-yard stare of a hardened study veteran after the six hours we put in today.

“Do you study this hard normally?” I asked.

“Well, it depends on if we have classes. Today’s Saturday, so I usually go harder.”

“I’m down to do this every Saturday. I think I need it.”

“Really?!” Seri slammed her hands on the table and leaned towards her webcam. I could see her forehead take up half the screen.

“Let’s do it!” she exclaimed. “We could even- hey! Don’t screenshot that!”

I snickered. She caught me red-handed. “What’s streamed on the internet stays on the internet.”

“I’ll get you back.”

“Tough luck.”

My stomach growled. Perhaps my brain was consuming more calories because of doing calculus all day. It was tiring, but a fresh change of pace for my monotonous school life. I was almost a little sad that we were done studying, which surprised me. I never knew I could find school even remotely fun. It certainly wasn’t like this my first time in university.

I guess that’s just who Seri is to me.

“Well, good work today,” I said. “Guess I’ll see you Monday?”

“What do you mean?”

“Huh?”

Seri looked at me blankly. She seemed genuinely puzzled.

“We’re done for today, right?” I asked.

“No… we’re done studying for today. We’re doing a day in my life, remember? That means we’re not finished until we go to bed.”

“Oh… so what do we do now?”

“Read the schedule.”

16:00 - work on distraction stickies until dinnertime.

“Ooohhh…” I was impressed. “I was just thinking about how the distraction stickies made my brain feel itchy.”

“Yup!” Seri said. “It’s crazy. Like it actually makes me excited for chores.”

“Is this how adults get things done?”

“Probably…although it’s easier because I live at home. If I had to cook my own meals and clean the entire place, I don’t know if I could keep this up.”

“We could meal-prep just for Saturday,” I suggested. “That would free up the whole day for studying.”

Seri chuckled. “That’s true. You’re really into this, aren’t you?”

Huh. I guess I was.

Being productive with a friend felt incredibly different than when I was alone. Perhaps I got caught in her flow.

“I like studying with you. Even that time at the park, I got more done than I normally would’ve.”

“You wanna do the bucket list then?” she beamed.

“I…”

Guess you got me there.

What we did today was pretty much identical to living according to her bucket list idea. But…

“Today was only one day. If I’m being honest, I don’t know if this kind of studying is sustainable in the long term. I’d burn out quickly.”

“Well…”

“Plus, it’s not like our lives are exactly the same.”

She pursed her lips in thought. I looked away. I was afraid that if she made a sad enough expression, What if I disappointed her? What if I stopped enjoying it, and started resenting her? I gave up on my nursing degree, and I feared that if I said yes, I would give up again — either on her or on her dreams. I simply believed there was no good outcome if I agreed to her list.

“How about we’ll make it a competition?” Seri’s bright voice lifted my face towards her. She was grinning, warm as always.

“What do you mean by competition?”

“If I get higher than you on any marked assignment or exam, you’ll adopt one item on my bucket list with me!”

A smile gradually forced its way onto my face. “And what if I get higher than you?” I asked.

“Then I’ll buy you a cheeseburger!”

“You’re the one who likes cheeseburgers.”

“You don’t?!”

My smile evolved into a laugh. Perhaps I took the list thing too seriously.

“Yeah,” I said. “Competing sounds fun. I feel more motivated to study now. Maybe I'll study for another few hours.”

“You can’t!” she complained. “We have to call and do chores together!”

“Why?”

“It’s on the distraction sticky!”

“It’s on your distraction sticky,” I corrected. “I didn’t start mine yet.”

“I guess we’ll have to do mine then,” Seri said. “Come on.”

“How about this…” I started. My heart pumped a newfound sense of motivation through my body. I was keen on reciprocating her challenge with another. “We’ll try the first practice quiz. If you score higher, I’ll do chores with you.”

“And what if I lose?”

“I get to take a nap instead of following the rest of the schedule.”

“!!!”

My cheekbones grew sore as I grinned through her backlash. It didn’t take much pressing before she eventually gave in to my challenge. I laughed to myself as I took another screenshot of her pouting. This girl on the screen in front of me made me optimistic for my upcoming university years.

I’m glad she’s here.

“See!” Seri clapped. “There it is again!”

“What?”

She scrunched her nose smugly, as if she was looking at a puppy. “That was a real smile…”