Day Eighteen--Qwerty

When I was in high school, I took college prep courses.  The other track for girls would have been the office/secretarial/business courses, such as shorthand, typing, filing, and bookkeeping.  I had no interest in any of those classes, except for shorthand, as I felt  that would help me with note taking in college.  So, I took shorthand in my Junior year.  The trouble is, part of the class involved transcribing shorthand and typing it up--usually as a letter.  As everyone else in the class was in it for the 'secretarial' aspect, some of the girls felt as if they were at a disadvantage if I was allowed to hand write the transcribed letters.*  So, I was forced to take a typing class.**

Our school offered two types of typing classes:  regular, office typing or a 'personal' typing class.  I enrolled in the 'personal' typing just so I would get the fundamentals for college and my shorthand class.  I HATED it.  I NEVER became a 'touch' typist--I ALWAYS had to look at the keyboard, which, of course, kept my 'words per minute' count very low.  My OCD kept me from 'just typing' to get my speed up--I NEEDED to get everything perfect and couldn't type just anything to be fast.  I passed the class, but not at a level I ever was happy with.  To this day, whenever I type, I need to watch the keyboard.  But at least I'm not getting graded on it anymore.  :D

*As it turned out, I was one of the top students in the class DESPITE my not being able to type that well.  I guess the girls who thought they could derail me by having me type didn't count on my perfectionism, which helped my letters be exactly what the teacher wanted.

**For those too young to know, typing was done on a machine called a 'typewriter.'  This was what we used back in the day before computers.  ;D