This unholy quest started with a scribble. A simple scribble on Mr. Callaghan’s 4-foot by 8-foot whiteboard. Which led to an argument, which ignited into a challenge. Emme sat, staring at the board in Journalism Class, when she asked herself, and others, “How many whiteboard markers will it take to completely cover this whiteboard?”
From this point on, Emme and Colby could think of only one thing: Expo markers. That night, Emme made preparations, considering if the task was truly worth the price: 8 dollars of Office Max credit and another 5 dollars from a soon-to-be-expired Visa Gift Card. As she roamed through the aisles, she selected twin 4-packs of Expo markers.
The next morning, they set to work. Over the next 3 days and a combined 1 hour and 12 minutes, the simple whiteboard would be transformed into a tapestry of ebony bliss.
Before we begin, however, I would like to challenge the reader. How many markers do you think it took? 1? 2? 5? 60?-Yes, someone actually thought it would take 60 markers. Place your bets now, and embark with us on a journey of ink and scribbles.
How to begin made our heroes scratch their heads: Is it more efficient to cover the whiteboard going up and down, top to bottom, side to side, or diagonally? Eventually settling on a diagonal art piece, Colby and Emme began to scribble, rotating off when their arms tired.
The first day was a minimum day, and against the protests of their classmates and time restraints, they persevered and covered about ⅓ of the space. With help from their esteemed journalism teacher, Michael Callaghan, they were able to fill the entire board with ink in a matter of hours.
“I’m feeling so pumped,” said Emme, during her first rotation of coloring the board. If only she knew the anguish that awaited her soon.
Even during the first day, Emme and Colby already felt the burn. Moving their arms up and down, over and over again got tiring fast. The arm exhaustion started to demoralize the duo, but they pressed forth.
To further worsen matters, the haters started hating and began to damage the heroes’ morale.
“I thought that it was somewhat silly, a little bit of a waste of time, but certainly quirky in its nature, and creative,” Callaghan said.
“I personally think it’s a waste of time,” Makaila Mosley (‘25) said.
Waste of time or not, our heroes persisted.
The second day started out rough. Emme had signed up to donate blood at the AGHS blood drive and was gone for the first half of the day. Colby wanted to begin without her, but Emme insisted on being there every step of the way. Recognizing their status as a team, Colby respected her wishes and waited. Unfortunately, this meant they were starting extremely late, more than a half hour after the start of the period. Nonetheless, they continued to fill the board with ink.
However, as they neared the halfway point, the loyal and dutiful marker began to fade. Colby noticed it had begun to tire out, and the color turned into a depressing grey, differing from the vibrant black they had come to love and treasure.
Emme grabbed hold of the marker, she pressed on, and the whiteboard marker caught a second wind, a second life, and pressed on, darker than ever. There was hope yet!
On day 3, something was different. There was something in the air, something electric. The board was close to completion. Emme and Colby scribbled fervently, coming closer and closer to completing the board. Finally, the entire board was covered in Expo marker ink.
The challenge was completed, and our heroes paused for a moment to admire their masterpiece. Their days of persistence, their hard work, their child. The whiteboard marker was their soul and their soul was the marker. All was well in Callaghan’s newspaper classroom, and the journey had finally come to its conclusion.
You may notice dear reader that no swapping of pens was mentioned. That is for one simple reason: only one pen was used. One single pen. The entire board was completely covered with ink to spare. It turns out, Expo markers have a bit more power than one would expect (Colby totally called it though).
