Bright white boxes smoothly roll onto a page, erasing the messy ink marks with a quick swipe of my hand, as if the pen had never come near the paper at all.
No matter the mistake, whiteout gets the job done—hence, its status as my all time favorite office supply.
Yes, I have a favorite one.
Work approximately 40 hours each week, handling office paperwork and organizational duties, and any person is likely to develop strong feelings about the best kind of pens (the clicky type that banks give you), notepads (medium size, unlined), and whiteout (the correction tape kind is infinitely superior to the liquid kind).
It sounds trivial, but having just the right day-to-day items ready at hand makes getting work done so much simpler. And that brings me joy.
Whiteout, in particular, holds a special place in my heart because prior to working at The Lincoln County News, I didn’t know it existed.
Before that, anything I had to write in pen would inevitably end up with misspelled words—or “write-o’s” as Ronnie Monaco calls them—that I would scribble over. The result was messy and hard to read.
Discovering whiteout was a whole world of new opportunities. Now I could get rid of mistakes with a quick swipe of the correction tape, and rewrite what I needed. My paperwork was much neater, tidier, and more legible for all parties involved.
It doesn’t matter how careful I am, some days my handwriting just needs a second chance—a hard copy equivalent of a delete button, if you will.
And that’s like many things in life. No matter how careful someone is, no matter how cautious, sometimes things just go wrong.
On those days, we all need a fresh start.
Correction tape is an important reminder that giving something a second try—or even a third or forth one—does make a difference.
Not everything is going to be perfect at the start. Not everything needs to be. But having the opportunity to go back and do it again—as many times as it takes to master it—is priceless.
On the easy things, a simple eraser might be enough, but sometimes the matter is too stubborn for that.
Sometimes it’s too important for a pencil.
Sometimes it needs to be in pen.
That’s okay.
Chances are, it will go perfectly fine.
And when it doesn’t, whiteout has my back.