Mine got really messed up in college, in Interior Design. We were instructed to print everything, using all capital letters. For a letter we would normally capitalize, we were supposed to use a larger size capital, and letters that would normally be lowercase were supposed to be printed in smaller capitals. I thought that would be a really nifty way to write, and tried to use that style in ALL my writing. Eventually I decided it just looked way too affected, and tried to go back to my regular cursive, but couldn’t. These days, I usually print my capital letters and write the lowercase letters, with a few exceptions. I will write certain capital letters. I never conciously practiced my handwriting when I was a girl, though, other than the obligatory classroom exercises. I considered this to be much too girly for my tastes. I was quite the little tomboy.
My signature is, when I use my married name, three initials and my husband’s last name. More commonly, I use Lynn Bodoni as my signature. If I have to initial something, though, I fall back on my married name, and use the four initials. I got into this habit because I had to initial so much stuff at various workplaces, and I hadn’t gone back to using my Lynn Bodoni name.
My name has gone through a couple of changes, too. Bodoni is my maiden name, but Lynn is my middle given name…until I went to college, I used my given first name, which I never cared for. I started going by Lynn in college, much to the dismay of my mother and grandmother, who had created an unusual first name for me. I felt that the combination of unusual first AND last names was a bit much, particularly as my first name did not blend with my last. I’d have lived with a traditional Italian first name, but that created name was just not me. I’ll still use it and answer to it when I’m with my parents, siblings, and cousins, but everyone else had better call me Lynn, or I just won’t answer. My dislike of my first name is probably another reason why I never practiced my signature when I was a preteen. I didn’t like my name.