For years I have looked for the perfect pencil. I have found very good ones but never the perfect one. And all the time it was not the pencils but me. A pencil that is all right some days is no good another day. -- John Steinbeck
I have lately become aware that the world has this unspoken disdain of pencils. Honestly, when was the last time you were asked if you had a pen to be borrowed? Maybe yesterday. What about a pencil to be borrowed? Maybe in third grade.
When I was little, I used pencils all the time. I loved pencils. I loved to open a new box of pencils-- to see all of those clean pink erasers and all the unchipped yellow paint just waiting to be used. And then there was always the time right after I sharpened a brand new pencil for the first time-- for just a moment, I held the epitome of writing perfection in my hand. It was all slightly magical...
I even had a favorite kind of pencil-- Ticonderoga-- these pencils had lead that wrote smoothly, soft, velvety erasers, and their wood was hard and durable...all this as compared to Eagle pencils whose lead breaks at the slightest inclination, and whose erasers are hard. When your pencil has a hard eraser, it smears what you are trying to erase all over the page. You might as well get a large neon sign that says, 'Hey look-- I made a mistake right here!!' Soft erasers obliterate mistakes quickly and completely and are thus necessary to any good pencil experience.
So, I loved pencils. But then something awful happened. When I got to be a certain age, the school I was at made me start writing with these wretched, wretched things called pens. Pens are not submissive and useful like pencils. They have minds of their own. You can be taking a History test in pen, and on the essay question the pen will suddenly decide that it doesn't want to write anymore and will then simply quit. You cannot take it and sharpen it and begin again. You have to shake it, scribble with it, throw it. But nothing can induce the pen to change its mind. You are stuck. Pencils are so much better, you can erase things with them (rather than slashing through things and then making your error completely obvious with Wite-Out. ), you can re-sharpen them, they are more fun to draw with, and plus have you ever felt excited when opening a box of pens?
My love of pencils was forgotten, while I struggled write with pens. I put up with them for years, but just yesterday after my pen had quit in the middle of an essay question I walked into the supply closet for a replacement pen. I was looking for the box, and I knocked something off the shelf onto the floor. I stopped to pick it up. A box of Ticonderoga pencils. Unopened and slightly dusty. I opened the box and was greeted with a faint smell of cedar and two rows of pink erasers. Magical, I tell you.
I finished my essay question in pencil that day.
5 comments:
Last week in Spanish class, we had a sudden need for pencils and there were only four to be found. Twenty strangers had to share those four pencils. By the time it got to me, the mechanical pencil was covered in perspiration. Gross.
"Have you ever felt excited when opening a box of pens?"
Yes. Zebra F-301s (particularly in blue). They are my favorite pens ever. Everyone who has borrowed one of these pens knows that they are my favorite because I tell them, right after asking that they return said pen when they are finished.
I always use pencils, except on very important forms that require the use of a pen.
I like mechanical pencils with .5mm lead, because it writes nice and small. I write small. Some pens have .5mm tips, but they are always write scratchly, and make obnoxious noises.
In fact, I have a blue .5mm Pentel twist-erase behind my ear right now.
Practically ever since I was no longer required to use pencils I stopped using them. Even in math. I would rather cross or white out then have a smudgy paper. Smudges annoy me. I do use colored pencils ... and, yes, even regular pencils for drawing. Anyone have suggestions on how to keep the pencil from smudging when you draw? No matter how careful I am smudges seem inevitable.
"Gross."
I find my find myself disoriented...
I hate pens. We have hundreds of pens at my house, in the sofa, under the desk, under the shelf, under the beds, in the LEGO boxes, piled on my desk...none of them work. I only use pens to mark up books and I refuse to use anything but my select pens.
Pencils on the other hand are where it's at. I never use the yellow ones because it reminds me of standardized testing.
With only a few months of debate left I am going to flow all my rounds in crayon. It will be fabulous.
Yes, however pens are much more durable to stab someone with.
Of course, I don't normally stab people, so naturally my writing utensil of choice would be pencils.
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