Fixing my fountain pen

I got a new fountain pen last week.

Since then, I’ve been trying to get it to write properly.

I got in touch with the customer service team of the company that sold me the pen, and they sent me to a troubleshooting site. There I read dozens of pages of articles on all the different reasons why a fountain pen doesn’t write properly and how to try and fix it. Almost all of these solutions involved subjecting the pen nib to different amounts and angles of pressure to bend it into the correct shape.

I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing.

A week later, and after a few rounds of nib yoga, my pen works only marginally better. I’ve now given up and asked the customer service team to send me a new nib.

Here’s what I’m taking away from this:

First, I should stop trying to fix my own stuff. My need to feel like I can do things myself, probably coming from some childhood desire to prove to others that I can, is getting in the way of my success. My time is better spent in my area of expertise.

Second, I should remember to ask for help sooner. If I had, I probably would have had a working pen by now.

Two valuable lessons pretending to be a fountain pen.

No wonder it doesn’t write well!