What the hell happened to my handwriting?

I used to have beautiful handwriting. When I was a kid. Primary school teachers used to hold my essays up at the front of class and tell other students what precise, neat handwriting I had. People used to stop me in the street and ask me to write important letters for them.

OK, so that last part didn’t actually happen. But I would have done it.. if they’d asked. And paid. Handsomely.

And then, some time in the late 1990s, I learned to touch type. And my handwriting went to s**t. Literally. I’m lucky if I use a pen – for anything other than scribbling notes – once a month. Last year, after our wedding, we had to write thank you notes to all our guests. I spent an hour trying to work out if I could do it in Microsoft Word. I get nervous signing my name. More than once I’ve been asked to sign it again. Thank God for Eftpos.

This morning I wrote a note on a post it to a colleague. I had to scribble out and rewrite the lowercase letter ‘a’ because it looked too much like a nine. I was disgusted at myself. So I wrote a blog post about it. On a computer. With a keyboard.

See what I mean?