So in addition to it being graduation season, it’s reunion season, and I’m currently in attendance at my 20th. (High School or College, I refuse to say.) But being here brought back a lot of memories, and since my own school experience abroad is a big reason why I got into this hobby and have remained engaged in the community over the years, I’ve spent some time thinking about the products that I would have found the most useful when I was a student. Sure, some of these almost certainly existed somewhere in the world at that time, but they weren’t easily accessible to me.
Extra-fine Fountain Pen Nibs for Annotation. Sure, I used fountain pens starting early on in college, but for whatever reason, all I could find were medium nibs, and that’s what I used exclusively until about ten years ago. Interchangeable nib fountain pens such as the TWSBI Diamond 580 would have been extremely useful tools, paired with a nib like the Mark Bacas Predator Hybrid or one of the Japanese extra-fine needlepoints I’ve reviewed in recent weeks.
“Slim” Style Notebooks. I’ve always been a note-taker and list-maker, but seemingly found myself limited to legal pads, larger letter-size or A4 notebooks, and DayTimers (remember those?) when what I really love are sizes like A5 Slim (“Traveler’s Style”) and B6 Slim (like the Nanami Paper Cafe Note and the Midori MD equivalent). If something like the Traveler’s Notebook system had been around, I certainly would have used it.
Quality Sticky Notes. I used to buy sticky notes by the case, but hated the fact that they all bled through with literally any pen except ballpoints.
Book Darts. I still have some books from high school and college, flagged with the aforementioned multicolored sticky notes and plastic document flags. Aged brass or bronze Book Darts probably would have looked a lot nicer.
Highlighter Pencils. Now this is a product that was almost certainly around, I just didn’t know anything about it and for whatever reason highlighter pencils never made it onto my radar until I started my legal practice and found one lying around the law library at my first job. The fact that you can use them over ink without causing the ink to bleed is infinitely useful.
Quality Woodcase Pencils for Writing. I’ve always been a pencil enthusiast as well as a pen lover, but towards the end of my school days the quality of U.S. pencils dipped tremendously as manufacturers outsourced and cut corners on materials. Pencils such as the Tombow 2558 and the Caran d’Ache School pencil remind me of what was available during my elementary school days, but had largely disappeared by college.
Quality Pencil Sharpeners, Especially Long-Points. If only I had known that I could have avoided years of feeding perfectly good pencils into the crappy electric sharpeners…
Later today I plan to make a run by the school bookstore, and while I’m not overly hopeful at what I’ll find, I’ll probably still add to my ever-growing stockpile, if only for the sake of nostalgia!
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