Writing, Saving, and the Klondike Bar Jingle

Remember the old Klondike bar jingle - “What would you do-oo-oo for a Klondike bar?” (If this ages me in any way or you don’t remember it or, in fact, you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about – look it up, keep it in the back of your mind, and you will shortly understand.)

If there is one lesson I should have learned by this point in my life, it is to save. Save everything. Save everything: mementos of nights out with friends and dates, money for rainy days, and old papers that may come in handy down the road. Save them, save them, save them! Save them in multiple places, if at all possible.   

It’s important because you never know when you will want or need to take these things out and look at them and remember where you’ve been, where you started, and how far you’ve come. Or you may just need to retrieve a paper you wrote last night to print off for class in ten minutes. In this case, you will appreciate having the security of knowing the paper is there; it’s safe and ready to go.

Now, what do these two things have in common, you ask? Well, let me tell you a little story. I went to write my blog post today and needed to save it to my zip drive. I went to my book bag where I typically keep it...

“Where is my zip drive!” I ask myself panic-stricken. “It should be here!”

I then spent the next half an hour searching for it, calling everyone I knew who might know where it was, and retracing my steps to the last time I remember using it.

I got lucky. A kind and generous soul found it in the Writing Center (where I last used it) and is now holding it ransom, pending terms to be defined at a later date.

The moral of this story: Do not put all your papers, writing, and digital mementos of days gone by all in one place. Save them, and then back them up, more than once! Otherwise, like me, you will be hearing, “What would you do-oo-oo for your writing back?”

Or you’ll spend a lot of time reproducing the writing you’ve already done and finished once just to make it to your deadline on time.

It's better to be safe than sorry so save, save, and save again!