I'm going to try extremely hard not to make this cliche

The "backspace" button is by far the most overused key on the keyboard. 

Actually the " " button might be.

Whatever. 

While the " " button is probably necessary, the "backspace" button is not. 

Except for spelling errors. I have a lot of those.

Whatever.

Honestly though, that "backspace" is used far too often. Personally, for every 25 words I've write, I've deleted 5 of them. Either I think what I said could be said in a different way, or, more likely then not, I want to take back what I've said. 

Or there is a spelling error. That's probably the number one reason actually.

Whatever.

5:20 words. Deleted:kept. That's a lot. Not counting spelling.

In a year, I probably type 300 pages. Assuming I write in double space, that's 75,000 words. That means I've deleted 18,750 words. That's 75 imperfect pages I've deleted in order to produce 300 pages that I think are pristine. 

That's a lot of pages. 1,350 pages in my entire life.

Expect I wasn't typing pages when I was 0 or 2 I guess. So a few less then 1,350 pages I've deleted. But that's still a lot of pages.

Assuming everyone is as meticulous with their writing as me, 525,000,000,000 pages are deleted every year. 


That's assuming that everyone writes double space. Also that everyone writes. But I guess there are people who don't write at all. But there are also people who write for a living. So I'll say it averages out. I might be off by a few billion.

Whatever.

It's still a lot of pages. It's like Atlas Shrugged times 450 million. 

Shoot. 

I hope some of those pages weren't as good and revolutionary as Atlas Shrugged. 

Some probably were. 

Whatever. 

That's a lot of ideas. A lot of revolution and passion deleted because it wasn't "good enough" or could be "said better." Or because we wanted to take them back. 

Imagine all those text messages typed but not sent. Letters and emails written in anger and frustration, or love and adoration- words deleted and papers ripped, for fear of what the reader would think if they knew what we thought. 

Every 'politically controversial' topic or 'offensive phrase' that we have used that "backspace" button on. Every comment we've typed on Facebook that we've never posted because what will they THINK and I don't know if I can STAND UP for what I BELIEVE like that and what if they think I'm STUPID or IGNORANT and I don't want anyone to FEEL that way about me and I CARE so much about what everyone THINKS about me and I want my writing to be PERFECT because I HAVE TO BE PERFECT.

I mean, or there's just spelling errors. 

I have a lot of those.

I'm really bad at spelling. 

Whatever.

So I have been writing this introduction without using the backspace.

Except for spelling .

Whatever. 

Honestly, you have no idea how much pressure there is to type everything right the first time. I've probably wanted to restart this introduction like 5 times and talk about something a little more germane. Maybe talk about something deep and typical like how dark life is, I kind of feel like that's how a lot of the writing in this class is going to be. Not that it's bad. I just really don't want to be cliche I guess. 

Shoot I feel like I maybe offended someone by just saying those things about how been deep and philosophical is cliche. ahh I'm sorry

No backspace though  

Only forward 

Whatever. 

I choose the name I did "aa Jack Napier" for some deep philosophical reason that my intro may or may not allude to.

Secretly the "aa" is literally just because I wanted my name to be listed first on the alphabetical list on writers. 

Maybe that in itself is a deep and philosophical reason. 

Whatever. 

I want this blog to be about what I actually think. That's why for not only this post, but for every post I make, I will not be using the backspace. If there's anyplace for raw and imperfect writing, it's probably this class. I want to be real. 

Except for spelling. 

I'm really bad at spelling.