Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Handwriting

When i was still in high school, or even in college, my handwriting has always been mistaken as that of a girl or maybe better than some girls (hehe). Maybe because i write smaller or finer and i think it's quite rare for a guy like me to have a little arte, believe it or not, on his penmanship.

I think i was influenced by the awesome handwriting of our class valedictorian in elementary, she writes so good that she made scribbling an art! She writes as if her pen was floating and every letter she wrote was perfect, with that little slant to the right and each word was finished with that little kulot at each end. I tried to emulate her writing, but sorry, no success on that. Still i tried and did not give up, until such time and without any realization from myself that i created my own handwriting style, my own penmanship.

It also help that I made a hobby out of joining on-the-spot essay writing contests and taking down notes on almost all of our lessons or physically transferring the content of our textbook into my notebook (so kapag time na ng pagte-check ng notebook, mine will appear like i've been so attentive in class lol). Me mga instance din na kapag tinatamad ang teacher namin (just my thought ok), ako yung pinagsusulat sa pisara (tagalog-english 101: blackboard) and of course who am I to protest, dagdag pogi points din yun sa character: matulunging bata, noted, 95 yan! hehehe. While I am strutting my wares (as if! lol), my teacher will be chatting and/or telling stories to my classmates and my classmates are either pretending they're listening or pretending they're copying what I am writing but actually they're drawing something or rushing that next subject assignment! been there, done that. LOL.

But nowadays, i thought my handwriting has deteriorated to the level that I myself cannot clearly read what I've written, kumbaga sa picture blurry ang dating o kapag salita naman ay hindi na malinaw sa pandinig. One may asked what happen? Simple lang, kawalan ng practice. With the onslaught of technology encouraging people not to use their own handwriting in communicating plus the convenience it offers, one cannot resist not to use it hanggang sa punto na nalilimutan na ang sulat kamay (hmm, parang hawak-kamay no hehe).
I've been using the computers for the last nine years, and instead of making a handwritten draft for any office memo or correspondence, typing it directly into the computer is, of course, more convenient, sabay edit na rin, mas madali ang trabaho. And don't start with cellphone/SMS/text, it does not only lessen my handwriting strength, it also affected my sfelling (anak ng spelling bee naman, wala na nga akong swerte sa spelling contest, heto at naliligawa pa ang letra ko!). From time to time, confusion regarding my spelling sets in and makes me wonder, and not to mention my failing memory on suject-verb agreement or that of the figure of speech or part of speech... whew! It's getting complicated hehehe, and I thought my only concern was my "deteriorating" handwriting, as usual, mali na naman ako. LOL.

It took a post from Toe to convince me to write something about handwriting, AND for me to write it first WITH A PEN AND PAPER and not directly into the computer. Quite a feat that i made it and if only you can see the draft of this post, iisipin nyo na "m" at "l" lang ang kaya kong isulat dahil parang puro "m" at "l" lang ang pwedeng basahin. hehe.

I am now more than convince to do first a handwritten draft before anything because right now, I am having some difficulty writing my own name nang dugtong-dugtong at hindi printed. Weird pero totoo yun, parang automatic na pirma lagi yung nangyayari kapag pangalan ko na ang isusulat, eh hindi naman ako artista na dapat sanay sa autograph, approval lang sa check vouchers ang pinipirmahan ko hehehe.
Seriously, we need to go back to basics, maaaring mas mabilis na ang takbo ng mundo ngayon at halos lahat na ay de-numero o di kaya'y nadadaan sa tiklada ng keyboard o sa pagpindot ng keypad, pero iba pa rin pala na nakikita mo yung sarili mong handwriting, na kahit gaano pa ito kalinaw o halos walang pinagkaiba sa kinahig ng manok, it always feels good dahil nakikita mo yung effort, or at least yung pagsubok at pagpipilit na mag-exert ng effort. And besides, it's more personal. :)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

same here, i could not even understand my own handwriting, so when i take down notes and decipher later, i just trust my memory.

since i went to a creative writing class, i have slowly gone back to writing by hand, for clustering of ideas. it's helpful. in the past, i would go directly to the computer, not i compose and cluster my ideas first until before i put the words in paragraphs.

and my eldest son, he is not settling for anything other than a moleskin!

Anonymous said...

i studied caligraphy writing in grade school and lots of my classmates in high school and college were envious of my handwriting kaso when i entered the real world ayun bumalik na sa kinder na minsan di ko na din maintindihan.

Just recently, I bought a pink parker (black ung ink ung case lang ang pink!)and somehow it helps improve my penmanship! kikay kasi ako love ko anything in pink! feeling ko sarap sarap magsulat kapag gamit ang bago kong pen!

Anonymous said...

If I go back to what I wrote a few days ago, there's a good probability that I will not have the faintest idea what the hell it was...

Anonymous said...

LOL! Did you know that I was also planning on posting about my handwriting? I read from Toe's then Manilenya's, parang na-enganyo ako. But I think that post will have to wait as there are others in the line up. Sulat kamay mo ba yang nasa pic? You know what, very similar ang sulat kamay natin. :)

zherwin said...

@sexy mom - i am not the only one, after all. :) the funny thing about taking down notes is that it appears like a puzzle and you are so right that we need to decipher it later! wow, good luck on your creative writing class. :)

zherwin said...

@zelle - talaga, nag-caligraphy writing ka nung grade school? ako i don't even remember how i learn how to write, it must be my mom (i remember clearly that she's the one who taught me how to read). :) hmm, if that pink parker can improve one's penmanship, i should get one hehehe

zherwin said...

@snglguy - just like what sexy mom said, we need to decipher it later and just trust our memory. the problem is we don't know where to start :)

zherwin said...

@ rhodora - yup, it was my handwriting, medyo matino pa yun kasi that was the first paragraph and then the latter parts were a bit of mess already hehe. wow, similar yung handwriting natin? for sure, better version yung sa iyo hehe. :)

Anonymous said...

Cge bilhan kita! maagang pamasko but make sure that u will use it everyday kahit sa work! Dare?!...kaso pano ko malalaman na ginagamit mo nga?! hehehe.

oh that caligraphy writing thing...ewan ko din bakit ako nag aral nun summer chuva yun eh lahat kasi nag enroll so go na din ako! :D

zherwin said...

@zelle - uhm, pwedeng dark blue na lang? hehehe biro lang. :)

vernaloo said...

maiba lang ako...fingers mo ba yan? hehehe :)

zherwin said...

@verns - cempre, fingers ko yan (at talagang fingers ko ang napansin?? hehe)

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