"Quail Head Feather Hook"
Avery
Disclaimer: I whipped this out from 11:19-11:44 p.m., just to give you a reference on my state of mind. Therefore, I am not "sophisticated in [my] argument, thorough in development, or impressive in [my] control of language," according to the College Board. I’m tired, but I chose to write this instead of finishing season 4 of Sherlock because I felt in the mood to write, even if what I was writing made no sense. I didn’t think this would be my first official blog post, mainly because I’m rambling and about as casual as Holden from Catcher in the Rye, so I’ll just hope I can write more insightful and profound things in the future. Our blog is called Stream of Consciousness, but I feel a bit far from conscious right now. I’m also too tired to proofread this.
Disclaimer: I whipped this out from 11:19-11:44 p.m., just to give you a reference on my state of mind. Therefore, I am not "sophisticated in [my] argument, thorough in development, or impressive in [my] control of language," according to the College Board. I’m tired, but I chose to write this instead of finishing season 4 of Sherlock because I felt in the mood to write, even if what I was writing made no sense. I didn’t think this would be my first official blog post, mainly because I’m rambling and about as casual as Holden from Catcher in the Rye, so I’ll just hope I can write more insightful and profound things in the future. Our blog is called Stream of Consciousness, but I feel a bit far from conscious right now. I’m also too tired to proofread this.
I vividly remember winning the handwriting contest in first grade at Kirk Day School, and I remember being proud that a board of my favorite teachers chose me over my best friend Camryn or the rest of the first grade class.
We had to write a sentence (one that I cannot recall from 10 years ago, but one that included the word “moon,” I believe) on a sheet of lined paper to enter; I meticulously, yet smoothly, curved my As and bubbled in the dots of my Is. It was neat and clean. It was standard, like the font seen in “trace the alphabet” workbooks.
So then how did my handwriting grow 100 times worse in the matter of a year? Just after my second grade parent-teacher conference, I asked my mom if Mrs. Stevenson commented on my nearly illegible print (She didn't, thankfully). My letters slanted so much it looked as if they were falling sideways but their feet were still planted on the ground, and this handwriting was something I felt insecure about, particularly because I had a passion for art and appreciation for cleanliness and couldn't control my poor scribbles.
Today I visited my third grade teacher, Mrs. Ridenour, and she gave me an old letter of advice I had written to future third graders in 2011. Okay, I thought after receiving it. My handwriting is good. Good curves, no stray marks, good pencil pressure. Well, I didn’t actually think of all this on the spot, but the I’m scrutinizing the letter now as it sits next to my pillow. But at the time, I remember that I wasn’t satisfied with it, because I recall copying my best friend Hadley’s handwriting: long lines and short circles for my lowercase Bs, light penciling and sharp curves.
I’ve had 8 more years of schooling since third grade, and I don’t really want to describe (or force anyone else to read about) my handwriting in each one. BUT I really want to bring up my sixth grade writing. Like probably every girl (or guy) sometime in her life, I drew my lowercase As with a “quail head feather hook” above the circle (kudos to you if you visualized that shameful description, and if not, it’s basically this one: “a,” instead of “a” with the top part chopped off). I also made all of my lowercase Ms capital after being influenced by my friend, Robin. My letters transformed into a frighteningly bubbly font, but now as I look over past notebooks, I find it quite satisfying.
The point is that basically every year, every single year, my handwriting has changed.
And yes, everyone’s does, but mine changes so drastically each time that they could all belong to a different person. I can also copy others’ penmanship remarkably well (sorry to boast, guys) and oftentimes associate peoples’ handwriting with their personality and who they are (sorry again, that’s weird). I don’t know why I do this, but I guess that writing and art are such integral parts of me that I consider one’s handwriting to be more than just careless movements of pencil on paper. I see handwriting as a reflection of who someone is and the way that he or she thinks. I don’t think my handwriting changes so much because I’m changing and growing; I mean, because everyone is. I think it’s because I see it as an outlet of expression (aside from the writing itself) that captures my ever-changing moods and perspectives.
Or I don’t know, maybe I just get bored of the same old thing.
I found this to be an intriguing blog post despite the disclaimer of not abiding by the CollegeBoard standards. Does the CollegeBoard really care about us? Why should we care about them? It's not like we own CollegeBoard stock. I would also appreciate it the suspension of judgement while reading through this comment, that is written so horribly it might as well be marked as off topic.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, on to the main topic of penmanship. This blog post reminded me of my shaky, slanted, and inconsistent handwriting that defined my childhood. Sometimes I would even get marked off because of my handwriting. You mentioned that you associate handwriting with personality. If you were to see my childhood handwriting, you may think that I'm disorganized and lack control, but it was quite the opposite. I was a total control freak and wanted absolute control of everything, including the pencil in my hand. This lead me to develop a bad pencil grip that looked like I was trying to break the pencil and my knuckles. It was only when I learned to relax, albeit just a bit, that my penmanship became legible, although it still seems as though I'm trying to break the pencil. I guess the point of this me trying to say that I do agree that the quality of the penmanship is a good indicator of personality, but it should not be the only thing taken into consideration, for the context in which things are written also affects penmanship.
I also want to share where my penman*ship* has sailed to recently. For a while, I would write small(ish) in order to make things seem a bit neater, conserve ink (I usually write with pen now), and because my thought process was that writing less would save time. I felt that there was no need to spend one or two seconds to write a word when I type the same word in fractions of a second. However, now I realized that writing is much more than a way to express words. It is more of a form of art than it is a medium of words. When I look back at handwritten cards, I stop focusing on the words after a bit, and instead focus on how all the shapes, squiggles, and quail head feather hooks come together to form a letter that is pleasing to look at. Before I thought that my handwriting was functional, but now I view myself as a lousy artist. Well, it is never too late to start over. Speaking, or rather writing, of lateness, I think it is getting pretty late for me and it is probably past my bedtime, so I will end this rambling here.
Wow! Did you actually read all of that? I don't know if anything made sense because my stream of consciousness is not smooth and more like a broken sprinkler. Anyways, hopefully it wasn't that horrendous.