This post was written by Leslie Engle, Laos Country Director for Pencils of Promise. Republished with permission from Pencils of Promise.
A pencil. It is wood. It is graphite. It’s a perfect cylinder that fits in the grasp of any hand.
It is art and literature, equations and inventions, movements and revolutions.
A pencil is creation. It sketches the images of the artist. It writes the first words of the author. It scratches the first notes of the scientist.
In the hand of a child, a pencil is freedom. It’s the freedom to validate thoughts and discover ideas, to release visions and begin exploring the vast potential of the mind.
A pencil is power. It’s there when you write your name for the first time; when you learn to express yourself and your ideas, when you announce to the world that you are you and that you have something to share.
A pencil drafts the first policies and ignites the first sparks of change. It is agency. It knows no limits and follows no boundaries. It writes in the characters, sentences and thoughts of every language and culture in the world.
A pencil is radically free.
It holds the power to release dreams from minds, to expand and change them into the realities of the future.
A pencil transforms.
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