Pencil vs. Pen

Yesterday between slides in my marketing professor’s power point, I skimmed the students around me, noticing one element common to each: the writing utensil choice of pens over pencils. I continued to scan the lecture hall, searching for someone, anyone, holding a pencil. But the preference was unanimous.

A preference was also unanimous in elementary school: pencil. I remember my English teacher demanding us to write in pen instead of pencil – she might as well have forced us to use our own blood. Because what would’ve happened had we made a mistake?! Crossing out was aesthetically unacceptable to our written masterpieces…but then again there were those “erasable pens.” Those never worked. In fact, they were worse than an actual pen because of the gooey and high ink viscosity required for erasing (better stated as smearing).

My impromptu research concludes that a transition of sorts must take place between the ages of elementary school, if not middle, and college. Attributing the transition to the wishes of our past teachers who complained about smudge marks and the lightness of contrast would be silly. Maybe we can attribute this transition to confidence. After all, we are college students.