PENS

You know that feeling when you return from a weekend career fair and you get to empty your bag of free stuff onto your bed? You sort papers, pamphlets, business cards and key rings into piles until all that is left in the middle are your pens. At the career fair, you scavenged through every table for pens of every color, shape and style, collecting dozens of them! We all know fun pens are the real reason we go to career fairs. Now, for the best part – you get to test each pen to find the ultimate pen, one that writes smoother, glides more gracefully and feels most natural in your grip than any other pen. It’s a bonus if the pen is especially sleek and professional or if it has a unique feature, like having a pullout scroll, or being in the shape of an animal. You can’t wait to bring your plethora of pens to class the next day and show off your proud collection. Do you know that feeling?

You know that feeling when all you want to hear from anyone in your first class of the day is, “Wow, Bethany, how did you get so many pens!” or to hear them whisper to the person beside them, “I wish I had as many pens as Bethany!”? What about the feeling you get when instead, the first thing out of your classmate’s mouth is, “Do you have an extra pen I can borrow?” Yes, you do. But the trust that would allow you to hand over one of your precious pens is just not built between the two of you yet. You aren’t sure they would understand the magnitude of your generosity. Do they understand how deep of a loss it would be for you if they chose to keep instead of return that single pen? Do they intend to borrow it only for this class period? Do they know that feeling?

No one wants to be in that position. If you have experienced the loss of a pen, you know how difficult it has become to part from your writing utensils. There are many career fairs, conferences and conventions in this world. Find your pen. Go ahead and build your collection. But even if you don’t choose to own your own pens, always return a borrowed pen. Stop stealing pens from those that value them.