Once upon a time, when the Notes app was first launched with the iPhone in 2007, everyone probably used it as a legitimate, no-frills notebook -- passwords, addresses, what-have-you. Now, nearly 20 years later, it feels like it's become a lot more than that.  

The Notes app of today seems to function more like a jumbled commonplace book than anything else: where scans of your birth certificate hold the same weight as inane midnight musings and unsent text message drafts. My own Notes are a jumble of drive-thru coffee orders, logs of my dreams, somewhat memorable one-liners, half-formed thoughts, notes to pass to my friends if we're somewhere too loud (or too quiet) to say them aloud...

I love the Notes app. I think if you were to ask any young person for the password to their phone, you'd probably be able to find out the most about them from (a) their camera roll, and (b) their Notes app. Maybe their saved alarms, too. But the point is: the Notes app is the window to the soul. Or something. 

I have 1,694 entries in my Notes (somehow), and they take up 1.27GB of storage on my phone. This selection of screenshots isn't nearly all of them---or even the most exciting, honestly. But it is a fun little collage of notes/thoughts/numbered lists through time, and I hope it makes for a fun skimming experience.

I'm very sorry for the horrific formatting of the screenshots. I cannot figure out how to make it look remotely nice or intentional.

xoxo Erin