Penmanship 101

When I was younger, I was often complemented on my fine, neat handwriting. It was not uncommon for me to get gold stars and check pluses on assignments simply because I had written them neatly. My first library card, which I received when I was about 5 years old, has my name -- or signature, if you will -- printed neatly on the front. I still have that card, and people who have seen it tend to exclaim, "You were how old when you wrote that?!" I was The Girl With the Good Handwriting.

But this is the case no more. I'm not sure what happened, but my handwriting is no longer very neat. Either my thoughts started moving too fast for my ability to write, or my fingers started getting too lazy. Or maybe it was just the discovery of my ability to type in the neighborhood of 70 wpm. Whichever it is, my handwriting has turned to chicken scratch. And I don't like it. I mean...I've got a reputation to maintain.

Let me explain: I am the daughter of a wonderful calligrapher. She has beautiful handwriting...even her "messy" handwriting is pretty and uniform. When my teachers and childhood girlfriends used to comment on my neat, precise handwriting, they would usually attribute my talent to my mother. And I don't blame them. Mom has taught me a lot -- I audited both her beginning and advanced calligraphy classes at BYU, I'd sit through individual calligraphy lessons during summer vacations, and I'd meticulously study her writing doodles during church and copy them the best I could. She was a great penmanship teacher.

And I've always liked penmanship. I like practicing. I like "doodling" words. I appreciate the shapes of different letters and the many ways one can make a letter A or a letter G. I see penmanship as its own art. Experimenting with different styles and alphabets has always been something I enjoyed.

But I think I need to go back to penmanship school. Or maybe I just need to slow my thoughts down to a more manageable pace. Often, when I get an idea, I feel the need to write it down as soon as I can so I don't forget it -- and if I don't write it quickly, the sentences I formed in my head will disappear and be lost. And we can't have that. They're good ideas, usually. Sometimes, anyway. But you can see my need to write quickly...and my accompanying problem of messy handwriting.

Seeing as it's back to school time, maybe I should go wander through the school supply aisles at Target and see what penmanship copy books are going for these days. Maybe I can develop an alphabet that can accommodate both my need to write quickly and my need for that writing to be legible. Or maybe I should just cut to the chase and learn shorthand. Or maybe I should just practice writing my letters again, like I used to in first grade. I mean, it apparently worked then, so why not enroll in Phase II?

All right, well...this has been fun, but I think I need to go practice my penmanship now.