I don't think I ever really liked writing with pencils. I mean, I enjoyed being able to erase things, of course, but I hated the way that your pencil wouldn't stay sharp, and then, just as I adjusted to it being a comfortable nub, I'd have to sharpen it again. After sharpening it, the tip would break, so I'd have to sharpen it again, and pretty soon I'd need a new pencil.
Around middle school I discovered the wonders of the mechanical pencil, and I never looked back.
Some time in high school I discovered gel pens and realized that my teachers no longer insisted that everything be done in pencil, which was the start of something new.
Eventually, several years into college, I was in the classroom waiting for the semester Russian exam to start, and someone said something about a pencil. I looked down at the pen in my hand and realized that despite frequent mistakes I had to scratch out (Russians have a whole different alphabet, did you know that?) it had never even occurred to me to use a pencil. Not even as a passing thought. After half a year of taking Russian.
I used a pen the second semester, too. I mean, I'd already gone that far using a pen, why change?
Despite this, I do often find pencils useful, usually for drawing things that I'll need to erase and/or want to shade. I just...don't write with them.
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