This weekend I busted out thank you notes, but my handwriting is illegible. I changed from small caps to all caps as my fellow left-handed father did to stem the tide of poor penmanship, but to no avail. I swear I wrote nice things and tried to personalize them when I had the energy to muster. It's just that as a lefty I have no choice, but to have poor, 1st-grade level penmanship and you may not understand what I wrote.
I was THAT kid in 3rd grade whose recess was cut short as the last one out the door because I couldn't write neat script, no matter how large the line spacing. As a lefty I've never enjoyed comfortable scissors, completed a blue book without smudged ink along my left pinky, nor borrowed a fountain pen without destroying the tip. I learned the hard way that erasable ink pens aren't made for my people.
Any writing tablet that forces me to rest my hand on a spiral binding, page crease, or other discriminatory layout will guarantee the hieroglyphics I try to pass off as English. Experts say lefties push as we write instead of pulling. I just think I should move to Israel where lefties are the kings of right-to-left writing. Pathetically, my right-handed writing isn't much worse than my left.
What's sad is that our thank you notes have no left-handed barriers for me to use as an excuse. My handwriting is craptacular without assistance. If etiquette hadn't said otherwise, the 40% of thank you notes that I had would have been typed. I think we'd all win. I save myself from hand cramps and ink poisoning absorption, while the recipient is able to read what I meant to convey...and isn't that the most important thing? It's either that or contract out a calligraphist.
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