MY VIEW: Columnist not up to challenge of going without paper

I’m a sucker for snail mail. E-mail or text me a kind message, and I’ll appreciate it. Write me a hand-written letter, stick a stamp on the envelope, and chances are, you automatically have me wrapped around your finger.

Seriously. Call me crazy, but I currently write in five journals for five different purposes. I love writing– especially on a piece of fresh, crisp paper. I also love to read. I own a Kindle, but I prefer to flip through an actual book. It seems more authentic that way. Some things are just better left on paper.

Some things are safer written on a piece of processed tree bark than they are on a hard drive hidden behind a glass screen. I’m not one to hold grudges, but a huge, online English project I did my freshman year would not save at the last minute, and I’ve been wary of technology ever since. I know that was probably a one-time thing, and normally you can save onto things like iCloud or a flash-drive to keep from losing your work permanently. Still that was the best project I have ever made to this day, but no one will ever know because it was zapped away into cyberspace.

Rest assured, I’m not bitter. I am just a little afraid of what could happen if I entrust everything I’ve ever written and every project I’ve done to a computer.

All personal matters aside, could I go paperless? Sure. I could type up everything and have several folders serve as journals on my laptop. I could e-mail and text all of the letters I want to send to people. I could buy books on my Kindle and, with some libraries, even check out books through technology. I could never click “Print” again and live an entirely normal life. Could I go paperless? Absolutely. Do I want to go paperless? Not in a million years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for saving the environment; however, when it comes to completely doing away with paper in my personal life just to spare a tree or two, it’s not possible.

When it comes down to paper vs. technology, I have nothing against technology and nothing against the environment. It’s about being a girl who keeps up with five different journals. It’s about being a girl who loves the feel of opening a book and the look of a little bit of pen ink smeared on a piece of notebook paper.

I might end up being the last person on the planet to own a printer. I could be 89, and ink might not exist anymore, and I would find a way to make my own ink. I would program my own computer so that I could continue clicking “Print” because paper is a necessity in my life.

Could I go paperless? Yes, I could. However, I plan to put in my will that a printed program must be given to everyone in attendance at my funeral whether paper is a thing of the past or not. I also just might leave behind a stack of hand-written letters to be stuck in envelopes and mailed off to several of my loved ones.

Will I go paperless? Not over my dead body.