What’s up? I’m Suzanne, I’m 20, and I never fucking learned how to write (said in the cadence of this vine)! I somehow managed to miss that critical stage in elementary school when everyone masters the art of proper penmanship. For one thing, I never garnered that perfect ‘girly’ handwriting that everyone assumes I should have (but f gender norms), but I also just cannot hold a pencil. So, I write essentially gripping pencils with my entire fist. Most people hold a pencil using three fingers, I on the other hand death grip my writing utensils with four and a half fingers. For reference:
Do you see that? Do you see how odd that is?
Set your eyes on this shocking up-close image that reveals my manicure-overdue fingers.
As you can see, I’m so anal that even the way I hold a pencil is for almost maximum control (not quite at five fingers yet).
Usually this quirk of mine passes under the radar unrecognized, and I glide along in class taking notes with my fist. Unfortunately, during the first week of this semester a friend noticed this oddity and asked me about it. I genuinely hadn’t thought about my weird habit in years. After explaining that this was just how I held a pencil, I resolved to learn the proper grip.
Apparently there’s a bump that those who hold a pencil with three fingers develop in order to make the ordeal less painful. I distinctly remember that no matter how hard I tried it seemed like I was never going to grow that necessary callus, and since writing with three fingers was too painful, I switched to four and a half (smooth logic for a 7 year-old). So, now as I have tried to re-learn my pencil grip, I have again experienced this unpleasant pain on my middle finger. Consequently, I have turned to the best remedy there is—GRIPPIES:
Few things (besides love of learning of course) can make sitting in a classroom as enjoyable as grippies. In elementary school these got traded in the eight year-old kids’ version of a black market. Today as a twenty year-old I’d still consider them a hot commodity. Even once I eventually master this handwriting thing, I think I’ll probably still use grippies.
With my trusty grippies in hand, I have tried to practice writing the correct way for as long as possible in class. When I inevitably fall behind in my notetaking, I have to switch back to death-grip. Considering I have the writing skills of a kindergartener, I’d like to give myself a little pat on the back for making it through fifteen minutes of a class last week using proper grip! All I can hope for at this point is that by the end of college I will achieve the skills of a freshly minted first grader.
