Pens: Always on (ball)point

January 22, 2015 — by Jade Bisht

Pencils are high maintenance and bothersome. Of course, most writing utensils are — they stand in the tall shadow of life’s greatest gift: pens.

It’s dead silent; students viciously scribbling away at some in-class essay, hands cramped but minds cranking at the speed of light. Words are flowing beautifully into well-connected transitions and breathtaking conclusions, eyebrows furrowed with intellectual stimulation, when — WHAT IS THAT NOISE? — all heads whip over to the growling sound of an angry, chomping pencil sharpener destroying the serenity of silence: all because of a pencil.

Pencils are high maintenance and bothersome. Of course, most writing utensils are — they stand in the tall shadow of life’s greatest gift: pens.

Nothing is more satisfying than the inky imprints that a pen leaves as it glides across paper, leaving trails of lovely curves and smooth swirls behind. It’s aesthetically appealing and, when the right pen meets the right thickness of paper, a spark of hope ignites in the beautiful connection.

Pens provide a tastefully satisfying appearance while also being environmentally friendly. Pens can easily be refilled through purchasing ink refills at local stores. Can you refill a pencil? Hah, good one.

Think about it: Pencils are made of wood. Wood comes from trees. Pencils kill trees.

When you use a pencil, you’re killing a tree.

Some may argue that mistakes left in ink are ugly, even when covered in white out. But nobody’s perfect; why try to mask mistakes? Teachers usually prefer students cross out mistakes with one, alluring line, rather than using white-out. Pencils, on the other hand, leave brown, disgusting attempts at erasing errors, thus leaving what looks like the remnants of a tornado on a page.

Ah, there are too many reasons to look down on pencils; their short lifespans, weak stems (all too many days in elementary school did I find broken pencils at the bottom of my backpack), constantly breaking tips and too much more. But maybe the biggest pet peeve of them all is having to tote around a mini pencil sharpener. And when you lose those, all hell breaks loose.

Do you need to sharpen a pen? Nah, just gotta let the pen do its thing.

To put the horrid lifestyle of using pencils in a relatable perspective: I, a leftie, have to constantly deal with dragging pencil and hand over lines of text when writing in-class essays and the consequential aftermath of lead stains on the side of my hand. Yet, when I have a pen, the ink dries neatly at the speed of light and I find myself happy with a nicely written essay and clean hands. Thank you, pens, for not making me wash my hands after every essay.

Pens provide the comfort of a built-in, squishy grip to ease the pain of writing for extended periods of times. But pencils? No. If a grip is preferred on pencils, then those have to be purchased, adding an additional price onto the already waste of money that pencils are.

Pens are just ideal in any situation. Writing a check? Pen’s got you. Crafting a birthday card? Pen will make that thing more eloquent. Signing the Declaration of Independence? Pens basically gave our country freedom.

There’s not much to argue: Pens are significantly more impressive than pencils, markers and all other inferior writing tools. You can’t argue with the writing tool that’s been around through thick and thin, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. Got Pen? I do. 

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