Stationery Life
Letter Written with Pens and Pencils
Ever since I can remember, pens and paper have always had some sort of magnetic draw on my hands and fingers. There’s just something enchanting to me about a notebook that has just the right amount of paper and is just the right thickness to look satisfying on its own. I know all the different types of pen and exactly what type of ink should be used on what type of paper. For instance, my favorite type of pen, the gel ink pen, writes well on almost any type of paper at nearly any thickness. The ink “rides” on the surface of the page and doesn’t bleed through to the other side or into the fibers of the paper itself (a definite no-no in my book).
But as many of you know, I’m a math and science dork…what am I doing getting highs from the perfect pen or the ideal notebook? It’s not because I have ever considered myself a dedicated journaler like Sithara, or an aspiring author, like one of my roommates. And of course, math and science people still do use pens and paper, but half the time the notebooks I buy are left completely empty because I hardly ever have the energy or willpower to sit down and write. And now that I have a computer that is extremely accessible at all times, writing anything down with my bare hands almost seems like manual labor.
This seems pointless and definitely wasteful. (Rest assured, though, I do end up using everything in some form or another. It might just take me a couple of years to finally use up all the items I acquire in one buying spree.) You may be thinking why am I reading a blogpost about pens and paper? Why does this matter so much that it merits an entire post, especially when it seems to be inconsequential even to the author? (Or maybe you’re just thinking, “Wow, Samantha is weirder than I thought.”)
Well I’ll tell you. It’s not inconsequential…to me at least…because it is one of the few things that I know ties my brother, my mother, and myself together. For probably 12 years of my life, I always thought that my mother never understood why my brother and I loved going to the stationery store in a local Japanese supermarket that we frequent. She always seemed extremely unwilling to let us buy pens and pencils and notebooks from this place, even though they definitely would be useful tools. But then one day, when I entered middle school, my mom pulled out a very small item from her secret treasure trove somewhere. She held it in the palm of her hand, and it was no bigger than the last joint in her thumb. It was a small pink stapler, literally no bigger than 1inch long and 3/4 inch wide. She handed it to me and said, “This was the stapler I used when I was in high school. Now that you’re going to middle school, I think it will come in handy for all of your work. You can have it. Just take good care of it. This stapler is older than you!” And then my mom explained to me that she always liked stationery since she was young, too, and it makes her happy to see that my brother and I also share that passion with her. But she wanted us to be careful when we were younger to not spend too much on bad pens or on paper we would never use. “You can’t just buy and buy everything. You have to learn what they’re good for so that you can buy the right thing when you need it. Then it will serve you well when you actually use it in school or work.
So that’s why I know so much more about pens and paper than probably most other people ever consider thinking about. And now you know why it’s become even more important to me. I understood my mom better, I can share it with my brother, and I can write with pride and fulfillment. It’s so special to us, in fact, that every time we travel back to Taiwan to visit my relatives, the various stationery stores around the city of Taipei are a “must visit” location (up there with temples and the 101).
Pencils, paper, pens, pencil bags, notebooks….yea, they’re all just objects, especially if I haven’t even bought them yet. But the ultimate idea is something that we can all appreciate. They represent the potential to connect not just with the rest of the world but with the people we care about most. That key idea has a new extension to my computer and this blog. Think about your own computer that you’re reading this post from now. Isn’t that why you love and depend on it so much (well at least when it isn’t frozen or crashed or somehow thwarted your plans)? It must be at least part of the reason why you’re reading our blog.
