Oddly, when people watch me write they, being in the internet generation, seem to understand. I can type a lot faster than I can write in any case, and my boyfriend and I view handwriting as an archaic form of communication. It is just very inefficient.

Still, learning it is important. I think those motor skills though could be put to better use with drawing and other more expressive forms.

I can’t write either. My wrist hurts if I have to write longer than a sentence.

Oddly enough, I can still draw. I draw diagrams all the time at work… are drawings using crayon an acceptable medium in the business arena?

Whiteboards will probably never be replaced in my lifetime, except by electronic whiteboards, I think. The ability for two-dimensional sketching on a scale large enough for a small room, with faster and more precise edit ability than even the backspace key can provide, is indispensable to a designer of any kind. Except now that I think about it, there are a host of graphic design programs that, were I to bother learning how to use them, might do the job better. Oh well.

Beyond that, both of my parents emphasized the importance of good penmanship to me, years after I had stopped being taught it explicitly in elementary school. I could never help but remark on my mother’s excellenship handwriting (she used small caps) and my father never stopped harping on how I cross my t’s and the baseline for my words and so on until I still, to this day, mentally criticize any mistakes I make that would merit his annoyance.

It helps to have a reason to use your hands to write.

That was by far the most torturous part of the GRE. I literally got about halfway through before I started contemplating how much I really wanted to go to grad school.