A few weeks ago, I read ahead on the syllabus and saw Professor Mulready’s suggestion to write a letter, or perhaps even use a typewriter to complete our analog experience.  I chose a hybrid of the two, as I wrote a letter with a typewriter.  I must say, it was a highly effective choice as this certainly was an experience.  To give a quick history on my knowledge and “experience” with typewriters, I have faint but fond memories of admiring the two my grandfather had.  One was in the study in his house, where my brother and I would often spend our time watching television, and another was at “the business”, the small warehouse / office space that occupied the business he and my grandmother inherited as I had cited on our first class day.  I’d never used these typewriters, maybe I banged on a few keys, but that’s about it.

Last week, I did my due diligence to ensure that typewriters were available, and learned I’d be able to check one out from circulation.  On Monday, I went to the library and asked to check out a typewriter… it turns out, the girl who was at the circulation desk (she was young, I could only assume she is a student who works there), was totally unaware that there were typewriters available for checkout… So she said this revelation made her day.  I’ll skip ahead to the first sign that this wouldn’t go super well.  The first typewriter I was given had a broken ribbon, so I could not even type.  I had to switch the typewriters out at circulation, and take two begins.  I’d venture to say this large case weighed about 20 pounds, just had an awkward feel, with a hard shell and tops that feel like a mix between plastic and tweed, but basically it seemed like a small suitcase.  I felt as if this process would be rather self explanatory.  Well, no, it’s not that easy.  I couldn’t find an alphanumeric 1 key, hitting shift+comma did not produce an apostrophe, and the spacing is tricky.  If you look at my drafted letter, you’ll notice I was off center, though I thought I did a pretty good job.  There was a serious fade in ink for my final paragraph, so I actually typed it twice, sadly making mistakes the second time over.  I’ll presume I went first, and that’s probably why Briana’s type was fairly faded (sorry!).  Lastly, I got a nice chuckle when I noticed the brand of my typewriter, Olympia.  I have never heard of this brand, but I currently work at Olympia Sports so to me, it was one of those mysterious, funny little connections that you couldn’t make up if you wanted to do so.

I’ll dive in to explain what I wrote and the actual experience now.  I thought it would be a wonderful idea to use this opportunity to write a letter to my parents.  The main focus of the letter is to thank them for all of their love and support, and I’ll be giving it to them next month on my graduation day.  I must say, typing these out in this setting rather than on a computer, or for some, a touch screen tablet or other device, was special.  I felt an extreme connection to what I was writing, and it’s even more remarkable because I’d already made an outline of this that I wrote in my notebook to avoid any writer’s block while at the keys.  So I’ll be honest, as far as ease of use, and of course, record keeping, digital technology blows typewriter technology out of the water.  The number one reason why I’ll say that is the ability to make mistakes.  Just in typing this blog, I’ve probably made north of 20 typing errors, whether it be hitting keys out of order, the wrong key, or misspelling a word.  But I have the ability to go back and edit, the magic of the red line indicating misspellings which I’m sure we’re all a little thankful for but you may also hate if you have a last name like Szymczak.  I’ll digress.  What I love about the typewriter, from my sole use, is the TLC factor instilled in it.  It’s not easily replicable, as in, it’s not like digital where I have the letter saved on my computer and could just reprint right now if I wanted to, and that’s special.  The mistakes, the faded type, they show a special extra effort taken to pen the letter that is lost in digital technology.  For that, and that alone, I very much enjoyed my experience, and am extremely thankful that I got to use this technology to express myself as I complete one of my final assignments.  So I’ll take this moment to digitally say it, thank you Professor Mulready for providing the extra incentive that gave me this idea, as I feel it’s one of the more special assignments I’ve completed in my time here at New Paltz.