Tag: high school graduation

How many more items like this do I have? That’s a good question, I don’t really know. I really do take care of my things and they seem to hold a lot memory associations with them. This Cross pen below I received from my Aunt and Uncle for my high school graduation in 1993. I also got a check for $50 that went into my war chest, otherwise known as a savings account. Boy was life different then, we had a home computer but still the majority of all work was done by hand and I do mean handwriting.

I dubbed this pen ‘my good pen’ and so I didn’t use it much. In fact, it probably spent 15 years in my day planner. For those of you that don’t remember or know, a day planner was an oversized book size calendar. It was meant to carry with you and keep track of all things on a day by day basis. I really wanted to use a day planner, in fact I bought several. But I wasn’t disciplined enough to write everything all the time.

The day planner became an item of clutter shortly after getting it setup. And with it, my pen sat zipped up and protected. I carried that planner around for years in case I needed to take a note or something but I never really did. I finally threw the planner away several years ago.

Writing in this blog is not the only writing I do. I keep a journal that is mostly about planning and productivity. Now this pen is used to keep a weekly log of what I did for the week and what I am planning for the next. About two weeks ago, it stopped writing. Finally, after 29 years it ran out of ink.

The good news is that I can still order a refill, which I did. I like the idea that items have a story. So, while the refill cost $8 and I could buy four good writing pens for that, it was worth it. My good pen is going to live on.

I have to be honest, some of today’s disposable pens are more ergonomic and actually write better. This pen is thin and a little slick. While it works perfectly fine, it isn’t the easiest to hold for long writing sessions. It’s best function is signing things and writing checks.

One of the weaknesses of the pen and design is the clip. Mine is slightly bent because it is soft metal and it got squeezed in that day planner I spoke of earlier. I thought it was so neat to have an expensive pen, I bought my girlfriend (now wife) one for Christmas. Hers is sprung more than mine. I don’t know how, but I know that is a weakness.

Ten years ago, when I did a lot of looking a gear list for survival packs and such, there was a ubiquitous Fisher Space Pen on most of the lists. This was a pen that developed for the space program. The ink was pressurized so that it would write upside down or any position. This is probably the gold standard for pens.

That being said, I heard an anecdote that the Russians decided to use pencils. It is kind of like Indiana Jones facing the guy with the swords and then he just shoots him. Why re-invent the wheel? The reason this pen is special to me is because of the memory, not because it is high tech or even expensive. Heck, I am pretty sure I still have writing instruments that I found in the high school hallway too.

End Your Programming Routine: This actually wasn’t the only pen I received at that event. I got another pen with a $100 bill. It was a more inexpensive pen, but I probably have that as well. I know this is what drives me crazy when my kids ‘borrow’ something and lose it or break it. Here I have kept and used so many things for thirty years only to have no regard for an item.