From the Pages of The Pieces We Gather

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I love school supplies. Deeply. Unreasonably. Give me a crisp notebook, a stack of sticky notes, a drawer full of perfectly sharpened pencils, and I’m happy.

But not just any pencil. The No. 2 Dixon Ticonderoga. The gold standard. The yellow icon.

In high school, I got asked to prom with Ticonderoga pencils.

Not flowers. Not a pun on poster board. Pencils.

Each one had a letter written in Sharpie: P-R-O-M-? Held out like a bouquet.

It was ridiculous. And perfect. And absolutely on brand for me.

I kept those pencils. Not out of sentiment, but because they were Ticonderogas. You don’t just throw those out. They go in the pencil cup. The backup stash. The drawer of champions.

Later, I discovered the black Ticonderogas. Same dependable pencil, but cooler. Understated. A little sharper around the edges. I used them for years. They were my go-to.

For a long time, that was enough.

Ticonderogas and Pilot G2 gel pens in .07. Classic. Ubiquitous. Available in every color at every Target, right next to the wide-ruled notebooks I would never, ever buy. (Graph paper only. Second place goes to blank. Dotted? Useless. Wide rule? Disrespectful.)

But then I found Blackwings.

And the Ohto GS02.

Not because I needed to be fancy. But because I finally let myself want what I actually liked. Because I care how things feel when I write. The weight. The texture. The glide.

Blackwings are velvety yet solid, with that perfect matte finish and square eraser. You can buy point guards (which I did), metal sleeves that slide over the sharpened edge to protect the lead. Like a cap, but for a pencil. Ridiculous. Ingenious. Completely unnecessary and somehow absolutely essential.

And the Ohto? That pen is a revelation. Clickable, weighty, precise. It feels like writing with intention. Crisp, clean, smooth, no smudging. I bought two. Just in case. It’s the kind of pen that makes you want to write something important, even if it’s just a to-do list.

Ticonderogas still have a place. So do the G2s. But the Blackwing, the Ohto, these are the tools that fit the way my brain works.