I have been told that I have ridiculously neat handwriting. I used to be way too modest about this, saying things like “Oh, it’s not that great” when people would compliment my penmanship. I recently realized that this only makes people feel uncomfortable and perhaps even worse about their own handwriting. So I’ve decided to own it. And part of owning it means blog-bragging about it to the entire internet community.
This is going to sound strange, but I absolutely love handwriting. I love the satisfaction that comes with writing an entire page without making any mistakes. I love when all the letters on a line are the same height. I know it’s a little neurotic, but it makes me happy.
Getting stuff done
This year I’ve been using handwriting as a study tool by transcribing highlighted parts from textbooks and typed notes from lectures into a notebook. Oddly, I can’t hand write write notes during lectures. I would write them messily and my hand would hurt and I would just need to write them all over again when it comes time to study. Such a waste of trees.
A masterpiece!
I’m very picky about my pens and papers that I use to take notes. I like white or cream-colored paper, not grey. I’m left-handed, so bound notebooks are preferable. These Moleskine journals are good ones. It may be the fact that Moleskine markets their notebooks as “legendary” but I always feel smarter when I write in them. Like I’m part of history or something. My life goal is to one day have a bookshelf full of identical Moleskine journals full of knowledge.
Moleskine Ruled Cahier Journal
As for writing utensils, I hate pencils. They’re messy and inconsistent and just not as good as pens. I like Pilot G2 pens the best. They write smoothly, dry quickly, and last forever. I prefer the 0.38 mm width, which is a bit difficult to find. I bought mine on Amazon and they’re about $1 per pen. The 0.5 mm width is good, too. BUT please listen to me and don’t buy the o.7 or 1 mm varieties unless you want ink smudges all over your paper. Ew.
Really good pens that you won’t feel bad about losing.
I recently bought a pack of these Staedtler Triplus Fineliner (what a name!) colored pens, and I really like them, too. They actually dry even faster than the Pilot pens. And they are colorful! Yay!
Colors!
So, that’s me explaining another of my neurotic quirks to the entire world. At least handwriting is a marketable skill… if I want to be a secretary in an office without computers. It does look really really pretty.
Courtney Em 
Jealous of your hand writing!
Thank you 🙂
Love this post, Courtney! You’re talking to a girl who kept two notebooks per subject through middle and high school; one for taking note quickly during class, and another for rewriting class notes very neatly. 😉 In college, though, I shifted to using my laptop to take notes because I couldn’t write fast enough to record everything my profs said. Oh, and I *love* Moleskines. 🙂
Thanks, Carrie! 🙂
I love your handwriting! I’m a lover of all things pen+paper too…there is nothing like a good notebook and a pen (computers don’t even compare)!
Thanks Irina! And so true! What notebooks/pens do you like?
Good for you, Courtney! 😀 You’re handwriting is something to be proud of. 🙂 I myself am a little neat-freak when it comes to my handwriting too. When I take notes I almost always have to re-write them if they are messy. But doing that lets me review them and makes it easier to review later on.
Thank you, Kat 🙂
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