How I Fixed My Broken Apple Pencil 2 Tip

I was recently working in the hospital and as I was walking to enter a patient's room with the rest of my team. My Apple Pencil slipped off my iPad and I noticed the tip had come off. I immediately started feeling emotions of fear and worry as I searched for the white tip that was lying somewhere on surprisingly enough, a white paved hospital floor. One of my colleagues stopped to help me while the others proceeded into into the next room with the physicians. I found the tip but the bottom had been chipped and fragmented from the fall, to a point, where I could no longer twist it back on to my iPad. I needed help, but I knew that I needed to focus on paying attention to the patients we were learning about for the day. The lives of many outweighs the importance of some material possession in all honesty. 

After completing rounds with the doctors, I realized I didn't want to worry any of my colleagues out about my issue so I went to the nearest tech support for Apple devices. Bringing my pencil to the front, the cashier said that she would have their technician check it out. Upon her return, she admitted that the pencil could no longer be fixed unless I somehow had the world's smallest tweezers to pull out the sensor piece that had been lodged inside the cap tip due to the pencil's apparently intense fall. I accepted my fate and asked the cashier, "how much would a replacement would cost?" About $137 she replied and I immediately started searching online for alternatives. I found a story on Google that someone had glued their tip back on somehow. I immediately became curious and plus I was practically out of options. When I asked if my pencil was technically trash now, the cashier said she's willing to recycle it for me and would recommend against the idea of gluing the tip back on because she described it as being "not practical." I held on to my pencil and headed home to see if I can save my Apple pencil and my wallet. I honestly have no patience to wait for a new pencil because I use this device literally every day at the hospital and at school when I'm taking notes or drawing a new idea. I was desperate for a solution.

At home, I tried twisting the cap back on and playing around with the app: Procreate. I tried drawing on my screen but nothing worked. After a couple minutes of twisting and holding the tip in place like some kind of jigsaw puzzle that would fall apart once finished, I soon noticed a mark appeared on my screen, a drawing mark from my Apple Pencil. To my surprise, the sensor still worked but only in a certain orientation. I used this idea of a puzzle piece holding the tip in place and grabbed my super glue. I immediately glued the top back on pushing it and twisting it back in exactly the way it did when I saw the mark appear on my screen. I held the Apple Pencil and tip together for 10 seconds then let it stand right side up for a while to give the glue time to set. Before I knew it, it had seemed as if the fall had never happened and I had my Apple pencil back! I was so relieved. 

I immediately wanted to remember this day to feel thankful for all the gifts I have in my life especially my Apple pencil. As an artist and student, I spent years of graduate school taking notes with my iPad on class lecture slides and even creating art a lot this summer. Below is an artwork I held on to for a while and had not finished until this event happened to my Apple Pencil, I will always remember this drawing as a reminder to stay humble for all the gifts I have in my life and to create beautiful things and share them with the world instead of keeping them to myself all the time.

Here is the drawing I made using my fixed Apple Pencil. It is of one of my favorite K-pop bands!