When I was in second grade I became mildly obsessed with handwriting analysis. After reading a couple of books on graphology, I started to feel skeptical about divining a stranger's potential to be a serial killer from the way they wrote their lowercase d. But this was several years before Google, and our encyclopedia didn't have anything in it about graphology, so I figured I'd have to put my studies into practice if I wanted to find out whether it was a real thing.
I decided the best way to do this was to intentionally make my handwriting as Evil as possible. My current handwriting apparently showed that I was outgoing (large print) and emotional (looping cursive and a rightward slant), and didn't have any of the classic hallmarks of Serial Killer Handwriting, like pointed letters or irregular size and capitalization. I would have to adopt a lot of different habits if I wanted my letters to convey that I was capable of murder.
My theory was that if I succeeded in drastically changing the way I wrote, either anybody could have very Evil Looking handwriting if they felt like it, thereby making graphology meaningless, or the physical act of writing in an Evil way would influence my thoughts and I would notice myself taking on the traits exemplified by my new penmanship (physical aggression, untrustworthiness, antisocial behavior).
I don't actually remember what I concluded after changing my handwriting, but this is what I think about whenever someone tells me I write my D's, E's, and Y's weird.
gracieabrams
