Wednesday, 24 September 2014

My Handwriting History


I was looking through my old diaries recently and found it really interesting to see how my handwriting has evolved over the years. They say that your handwriting can say a lot about your personality, so I thought I’d share how mine has progressed and, by looking at a totally unsubstantiated piece of research, see what it says about me!

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any of my early writing examples. I’ve got a feeling that my school books are probably in a box hidden away in the loft somewhere and I don’t tend to frequent in there much as it’s full of scary spiders and shadows! So, we start in 1998. I was 10 years old and had just been given my first diary to start writing in.



According to this article the fact that my handwriting is fairly small means I was shy or withdrawn, which is actually pretty accurate. As a child I was often the wallflower, watching from the sidelines and not speaking up. I think that, over the years, my confidence has improved, although even now I would say I am quite a shy and private person, which is one of the reasons I started writing a blog, to try and improve my confidence.

Then comes 1999 and I’m still writing in my five-year diary. I’ve actually managed to keep a diary for a whole year, which I think is pretty good for a ten year old! I’m obviously going through a phase here of using coloured gel pens, as looking through the rest of this year my handwriting resembles a rainbow.



My letters seem to have changed here from being rather pointy, to being a lot more rounded. Apparently this means that I was creative and artistic, again, quite a good prediction. I have always been a very creative person. I’m not saying I’ve ever been a particularly good artist, but I have always loved to use my imagination to create beautiful things.

We now skip a few years to 2002, when I would have been 14 so well into my teenage years. I have now moved on to using a blue biro, and am talking about my special little guinea pig, Humbug.



According to the article, the fact that I have quite wide spaces between my words suggest I enjoyed my freedom and didn’t like to feel overwhelmed or crowded. I think this is quite true actually. I have always felt comfortable in my own company, and often found it very difficult in a large group of people. Especially coming into my teenage years, I often struggled with social situations and would take myself off to my room for some time alone to feel calmer. Don’t get me wrong, I loved spending time with my friends, but I was the kind of teenager who needed her own space and didn’t want to spend every minute of the day with other people.

Skip forwards a couple of years to 2004 and I am now 16. The year before I became very ill and was diagnosed with M.E, so things are a bit of a struggle at the moment.



Looking at this extract I can see that when I dotted my ‘I’s’ the dot was quite high. If you believe what the article says, then it would be fair to say that I had a great imagination, and I’m inclined to agree. With being so unwell, I often used my imagination to escape into a world where I wasn’t in pain or feeling sick all the time. I wrote stories, did arts and crafts or just imagined scenarios in my head to escape from reality, so I would say my imagination was pretty good around this time.

Move forwards a few more years to 2006 and I have reached the milestone age of 18. I’ve been ill for a couple of years and am now well enough to go to college.



As you can see in this extract, I have left quite a large margin on the right hand side of the page, which, according to the article meant I feared the unknown and constantly worried about the future. This couldn’t be truer. I had spent a few years very unwell and had managed to get back some sort of life for myself. But I was always terrified about getting worse again, and was also just starting to think about going to University, which filled me with lots of concerns.

We now move on to 2010 and I am 22 and working as a Learning Support Assistant at my local Secondary School. My health has been pretty good for a few years now, apart from a blip when I had to leave University.



My writing here seems to have got bigger and rounder, which is said to mean I am an outgoing, people-oriented person. However, it also says that I may put up a front and pretend to have a lot of confidence. I think this fits quite well with this time of my life. I was working in a school and to be honest felt pretty lost, but had to come across as professional and knowing what I was doing. I often acted more confident than I felt in front of my pupils and work colleagues, but was definitely a people-person and loved spending time working with other people.

Almost at the present day, we now move on to 2013 – last year. Not a very good year for me unfortunately, filled with a lot of mental health problems and difficult times.



You can see that my ‘t’s’ are crossed right in the middle, which indicates me feeling confident and comfortable in my own skin. This particular prediction couldn’t be further from the truth. I felt like a stranger in my own skin and hated the way I looked and felt. My eating disorder was ruining my life and everything I did revolved around losing weight. I felt anything but confident – my self-esteem was at an all time low and I often hid away and didn’t go to events because I felt so insecure.

And now to the present day – 2014. This is from my diary this year, just a couple of months ago.



In my writing now, my O’s are closed, which is said to mean I am a private person. I’m not sure I’d agree with that to be honest. Yes, there is a lot of stuff I do keep to myself, but through blogging I have opened up a hell of a lot. I also fill the whole page with my writing and this is meant to mean that I can’t sit still or relax and my mind is constantly running. This one is definitely more accurate! At the moment my mind is running 24/7 and I can’t remember what it feels like to relax!

So, there we are – a brief history of the evolution of my handwriting. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know me through my writing a bit better and perhaps you could have a go at analysing your own handwriting with this article. I was also thinking of possibly doing a post looking at some of my old diary entries, to see what I was thinking at different points in my life, so let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in seeing!

Do you believe your handwriting says something about your personality? What do you think yours says about you?


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