Cursive

I remember third grade as the year that we were finally going to learn how to write in cursive. We had those large sheets of paper that had room for three lines of script to practice. Throughout the rest of elementary school and middle school, all of our writing had to be in cursive. In high school, it was hit and miss if you were required to use cursive. All that, of course, dried up in college, when all they cared about is if they could read what you wrote or not.

The other day, I was taking notes on something, and realized that I wasn't even sure if I could remember how to write in cursive. So I did some practicing. I'd get halfway through a word, and revert back to the half-print, half-script that I usually use. There were some letters that I couldn't even remember how to make.

Following through on that, I remember going away for the summer on week-long trips to camp. Once that was over, we'd write letters to the other folks (mostly girls, of course) that we met at camp. The point here is, when's the last time you wrote a letter? Aside from handwritten notes like thank you's or birthday or holiday cards(3-4 sentences, 1 page), I can't even remember the last time I've written one. It's much more personal of a thing than an email or an instant message from someone. I'm not yet at the point where text messages are a regular communication tool for me, but this trend toward convenience is a negative thing I think, particularly for this.

I haven't yet noodled out whether the fact that these thoughts are written on a blog on the internet are indicative of anything, but I'm open to ideas.