One of my coworkers sat back in his chair and let out a long, exasperated sigh.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I've been working here too long," he said.
"What makes you say that?" I asked, pretending to be interested.
"I just realized I can actually read what you wrote down on the log sheet," he said.
"Ooh, that's not good," I replied.
My handwriting sucks. Its gotten worse over the years as I've worked more on computers, typing and all, and really no longer give a shit. I'm not in school anymore so who am I trying to impress? My attitude is: if you don't like it, then don't make me write. I quit attempting to write in cursive sometime in high school. If you want to read anything I've written, you're gonna have to settle for block printing and even then it's something akin to Sanskrit, which means it might as well be in cursive. I've also found it's not so much a problem of legibility, as if I could just take extra time to make it clearer, it's a loss of motor control. The actual dexterity that it takes to make the letters on the paper seems to have diminished greatly over the years.
The biggest problem I've experienced so far is writing checks at the grocery store. Sometimes I think I'd be better off just voiding the check and starting over after a couple of attempts to make "Safeway" resemble some part of the English language. However, after having worked in a grocery store for seven years, I can tell you that the only part of your check that matters is the number(s) you write in the little box - the rest of it could be in Spanish and no one would care. I once wrote a check in orange crayon (true story) and it cleared my bank.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I've been working here too long," he said.
"What makes you say that?" I asked, pretending to be interested.
"I just realized I can actually read what you wrote down on the log sheet," he said.
"Ooh, that's not good," I replied.
My handwriting sucks. Its gotten worse over the years as I've worked more on computers, typing and all, and really no longer give a shit. I'm not in school anymore so who am I trying to impress? My attitude is: if you don't like it, then don't make me write. I quit attempting to write in cursive sometime in high school. If you want to read anything I've written, you're gonna have to settle for block printing and even then it's something akin to Sanskrit, which means it might as well be in cursive. I've also found it's not so much a problem of legibility, as if I could just take extra time to make it clearer, it's a loss of motor control. The actual dexterity that it takes to make the letters on the paper seems to have diminished greatly over the years.
The biggest problem I've experienced so far is writing checks at the grocery store. Sometimes I think I'd be better off just voiding the check and starting over after a couple of attempts to make "Safeway" resemble some part of the English language. However, after having worked in a grocery store for seven years, I can tell you that the only part of your check that matters is the number(s) you write in the little box - the rest of it could be in Spanish and no one would care. I once wrote a check in orange crayon (true story) and it cleared my bank.
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Is that a sample of your handwriting you posted? Wow -- def the worst I've seen. No, wait, I take that back. My grandfather's is worse; he has that "Essential Tremor" and his handwriting is worse. My mom has that and I do too, now, although mine's minor so far. (It's hereditary.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mdvu.org/library/disease/et/et_mcd.asp
But so what? We all have keyboard skillz. I say get you a debit/credit card for the groceries and you're good to go. You'll probably never be a locksmith or one of those dudes who writes the Lord's Prayer on the head of a thumbtack.
I have an office mate with horrible handwriting, but he can read it himself. Can you read yours when you go back to it later?
Yep that is actually what my writing looks like and I can read it too! I imagine what is happening to me will happen to everyone as our world becomes more and more electronic. I'm amazed at how much more "keyboard literate" the younger generations have become. I took typing in high school. We learned on manual typewriters with no letters on the keys so you were forced to learn to type by touch. Now days it's not unusual to see kids who can use a keyboard by touch (not just hunt & peck.)
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine told me today that his kids' school is no longer teaching cursive writing. Kind of interesting. They are thinking there's really no need to spend time on that when they need to be teaching keyboarding skills.
ReplyDeleteAs homeschoolers, we bought keyboarding software about 10 years ago for the first one to learn typing, but the other two picked it up on their own as they did their homework and other stuff on the computer.