I really do hate my handwriting.
I often look back at things I’ve written and I can’t make heads or tails of them. It’s my own writing, from my own hand, and even I sit there trying to decode it like I’ve found an ancient scroll in a drawer with ruddy hieroglyphs all over it .
I blame my old school. I’m of an age where we had to write with fountain pens. Not only that, but we had to go through our Penmanship grades. I did get my Grade 1 Penmanship, by the way, so at some point in history I was officially good at this.
The problem was that we also had to write in italics. So today, my handwriting has these very angular and slanty, and ittends to be an extreme slant. It looks like the words are trying to leave the page before I’ve finished writing them.
Apparently, according to handwriting experts, this sort of slant can suggest someone is impulsive and has a penchant for oversharing ... which is probably fair.
I also apparently have a large “upper zone”. That means the taller parts of my letters usually go higher than they should. This is meant to suggest someone who thinks a lot, has creative hobbies, and has big future aspirations or goals. I mean, I do write beer reviews and make videos, so I’ll take that bit.
Less kindly, big upper zones are also linked with being slightly disconnected from reality, with a bit of a head-in-the-clouds mentality. Cheek.
The truth is, my handwriting just isn’t attractive. It never looks relaxed. It never looks casual. It looks like it has been trained too hard and has never quite recovered.
And when I try to fight against that old style of writing, which I do quite a lot, it ends up looking even worse. The original shape is still there underneath, but now it’s annoyed.
So I’m stuck with handwriting that I don’t like, can’t easily change, and can barely read.
Still, at least I’ve got the Grade 1 Penmanship certificate floating around somewhere ... so winner 😀
Got a thought on this? Share this post or say hello elsewhere online.