Samantha margot, Features EDITOR
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 28, 2020
Everyone has a quirk. For some it could be routinely eating an orange once a day and for others it could be never taking off their rank beanie in public; for these three students it’s about collections. Whether tickets, glass figurines, sweatshirts or crystals, each started on a whim and ended up spanning years.
You don’t need to travel far and wide to see the oddities of life when they reside in our very community. Everyone’s got a thing that sets them a part, read below for student recounts about the collections that do the same for them.
Senior Lillie Wirth
One ticket stub mistakenly left in her pocket led theatre aficionado and senior Lillie Wirth on the ticket collecting journey of a lifetime.
What do you collect?
“I collect tickets and programs from shows and movies I go to, or anything really that has a ticket or program. I’ve got my movie stubs, I go to a good amount of theatre so I’ve got all that stuff. I try to find tickets from shows I’m in or the ones I direct. I participate in an annual theatre festival and I always save a program from that festival.”
What compelled you to start?
Lillie Wirth (12) collects tickets. She is inspired by her involvement with school theatre and outside school productions. She looks forward to a college career directing their local theatre. (Courtesy of Lillie Wirth)
“I don’t know. I started when I was ten years old maybe, it’s just been a nice way to remember all the things I’ve done. I can look back at a certain movie I saw or a certain show and it’s a nice little way of remembering that moment in time.”
Do you take tickets from other people?
“It’s just me, unless I go to a show with a friend and lose my ticket, then I might ask.”
Where do you keep them?
“The programs are in my desk drawer and I keep the tickets in a box.”
Do you have an endgame in mind?
“I really don’t know, I’ve been thinking about scrapbooking. I have a lot of random pieces of paper on the wall, so a scrapbook sounds like a good idea, but it also sounds like a lot of work.”
Anything else to say?
“I really don’t know, I started on a weird whim as a fifth grader and just kept doing it. It’s a nice way to remember stuff.”
Senior Emma Bergeron
Read the intriguing recount about senior Emma Bergeron’s collection of over 100 sweatshirts that span the walls of her room.
What do you collect?
“I have a sweatshirt collection, you could say. I don’t specifically collect them, it’s not a valuable collection.”
Do you know how many you have?
“Probably around 106 by now. I wear all of them consistently, they’re just a mix. I have [some] from travel, college, ones from thrifting. Some of them are sentimental, I have some from my grandfather that he gave me before he passed away. I think I have some of my sister’s ex’s sweatshirts.”
How are they all organized?
“They’re all on bookshelves. I have the sports ones with lacrosse and all the Ballard sports, the college ones and travel ones on a separate shelf.”
What’s the oldest one you own?
Organized by relevance, the shelf above is dedicated to sports. (Courtesy of Emma Bergeron)
“I think I have one from McClure in there, I don’t know why.” Do you have any specificities for a sweatshirt? “I just go for a sweatshirt. I see one and say ‘I like that.”
What do you do with them? Do you have any plans for them?
“Here’s the thing, I wear all of them. I’m like a factory for trading sweatshirts, it’s like one of those tiny libraries where you take a book and you give one back. But I’ll probably give them away.”
Senior Elle Murray
They started as a gift and ended as one. The windowsill of Senior Elle Murray’s room is littered glass figurines in the shapes of animals.
How many figurines do you have?
“I started with about 40 glass figurines, when I was moving I dropped them all and a ton broke. Now, I think I have around 20.”
Where do you get them?
“My grandma gave me some, my other grandma gave me a bunch of hers. I say that I collect, even though I’m only gifted them. When they [the grandmothers] think of me, that’s the attribute that comes to mind for them.”
What’s the first figurine you had?
“The first one I ever got was a little pig.”
Above are a glass dog, an owl and an elephant. Elle Murray (12) was gifted these glass figurines as a kid and continues to look after them. (Courtesy of Elle Murray)
Are they lifelike?
“They’re definitely not realistic, they’re like cartoons. I don’t enjoy them for their realism.” What do you do with them? “They’ve been collecting dust for awhile, a good six years.”
What’s the plan for when you’re at college?
“I will probably leave them all, just so I don’t break them.”
