The note a parent tucked in your lunch seemed corny at nine. Plenty of people wish they’d kept one.

Affection that embarrasses you at the time is often the thing you later want evidence of. A note in a lunchbox is a small piece of somebody’s morning spent on you, and the corniness is precisely what makes it valuable twenty years on, when the handwriting counts for more than the words.

If you still get something like that, keep one and leave it in a drawer. Consider writing one yourself for a younger sibling or a friend having a rough week. They will probably find it embarrassing and keep it anyway.