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WHITNEY CURTIS | senior staff writer
When I was five years old, my mother took me to the office supply store close to our Moreno Valley home and told me what I would need on my first day of school. We gathered carefully. I wanted the coolest pencil box and the best lunch pail. We also picked out fat and skinny markers, the biggest box of crayons, Elmer’s white glue and blue glue sticks, number-two pencils and fancy sharpeners, scissors with tiny finger holes and a ream of wide-ruled paper—all for that fateful first day of school.
At the time, I didn’t have any idea what I would need most of those materials for, but I knew I had to have the best. Similarly, I hadn’t the faintest idea during those first days of kindergarten that my obsession with school supplies would grow, and I would be one of those people who actually liked school. Writing with felt-tip pens or smelling that fresh, new box of crayons would forever be a source of excitement and eager anticipation for me.
Now as a college senior in my last semester of school, I have grown beyond my childhood fancies. I no longer pick out Beauty and the Beast pencil boxes or Lisa Frank folders—although I may if I came across them again and could somehow justify it. No, instead I have perfected my school supply stash by buying only the best-working and longest-lasting materials. Each year I try the latest products—remember pop-a-point pencils? When you had worn down a sharpened edge, you just popped it out, pushed it back in at the end, and a new sharpened point would appear. If I didn’t like the product, I didn’t buy it again (i.e. erasable pens). If I did, I kept it in my “stock.”
Although my roommate shares my affinity for school supplies, many more of my peers are completely clueless and overwhelmed when it comes time to shop. Should they choose Papermate or Bic? It can be very confusing if you don’t know where and how to get started. To help the ailing student, I have fashioned a “How To: School Supplies” for the students who long to feel that rush when opening a brand new pack of pens or open their folders to crisp, linen-like reams of college rule. Here are some basics—don’t leave home without them:
1. Paper is the most common necessity for school, but don’t be caught buying just any old paper you see on the shelf. There are standards every stack should meet. Here is what to look for: college-ruled reams should have bright lines and reinforced holes that aren’t too close to the left edge. Faint lines will only cause confusion while notetaking in class. After all, there’s no time to stop the fury to make sure your handwriting lines up with the rows on the page. Buying non-reinforced paper with the holes too close to the edge will only cause heartache when you are trying to find those notes the night before your big test, as they will have surely fallen from your folder.
2. I am a firm believer that every student should have a writing utensil for every need, whether such need is real or imagined. That is why I buy multiple types of pens in various colors and sizes. Still, it is important to buy pens that you know are reliable. In answer to the question posed above: I buy black and blue Bic ballpoint pens in large quantities for everyday use and to have on hand at my desk, by the phone or in the car. Although I have had bad experiences with Papermate ballpoint pens—they run out of ink quickly and write irregularly—I love the company’s mechanical pencils as well as their felt-tip pens that come in various colors. These smooth writing wonders will last forever and are perfect for taking notes or journaling. The felt-tips lend themselves very useful to the organized individual who may wish to separate his or her notes by using a different color for every topic covered.
3. After the felt-tips have combined with the brightly lined, reinforced college-ruled paper, it is important to have a way to collect the information and keep it organized within a system. The first and most basic way to categorize notes and important papers is to create a binder with labeled tabs. This is a great way to store notes because, ideally, whenever a test presents itself you will have all of your written notes in an organized format. However, this system does run into problems if you have a professor who provides his or her own non-three-hole-punched handouts to supplement your own neatly organized notes and records. A few ways to cure this: a) get a flat three-ring-hole-punch to snap into your binder, b) purchase a double pocketed folder to place in the back of your binder, or c) ditch the binder idea all together. If you choose option c, you may want to use a system of paperclips and simply paperclip your work for each class together and keep each class’s work separate with an accordion file folder.
4. Finally, it is absolutely paramount that each student purchase or create his or her own daily organizer. Believe me, there are few in this world that can keep track of every coffee appointment, due date and TV guide schedule without writing it down somewhere. Personally, I prefer a daily planner with plenty of room to write all of my lists of things to do. My planner must be easy to fit in my backpack or purse and not add to the weight of books that will already have me seeing a chiropractor for the rest of my life.
I have now started you off on the right path to a better, more fulfilled life of school essentials. I hope you will find just a small piece of the joy and anticipation I feel toward the undiscovered blank slate of a new semester. And knowing that many of you won’t, but rather will find my school supply obsession a ridiculous and even silly fascination, I must say, as Meg Ryan did in You’ve Got Mail, “I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address” to warm your thoughts.
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