The Art of Calligraphy by Anjali

The Art of Calligraphy by Anjali - January 2023 Scholarship Essay

I have not done more than attempt to learn the basics of Calligraphy from YouTube videos. It's hard. Frustrating. I thought it would be calming. Not quite.
Instead of beautiful writing I was achieving messy ink blots,spidery, scratchy letters with no symmetry. It made me feel quite unskilled.

For those not familiar with calligraphy, it is the art of nice and decorative handwriting.
My mom bought me a set of inexpensive calligraphy pens which I didn't touch for years.

She said to donate the pens when we found them while spring cleaning.
For some reason I kept them.

So, back to my progress.
So it did get better. The experience at least, not so much my calligraphy.
I realised, with time and lots of patience, to give it time and lots of patience. I learnt to not be so critical of the blob of ink that was supposed to be the beautiful letter A.
I learnt to breathe slower while writing and to focus only on that one thing- writing the letter A. Over and over.

I slowly learn not to be so judgemental of myself.To look at my attemps with humor and compassion.
I felt time go slower with each brushstroke.I felt energised after.
I looked forward to a day when I had time to practice that letter A.To see the slight improvement.To privately pat myself on the back for the improvement. To smile at myself if my attempt was back to square 1.

What helped me a lot was listening to a podcast about monk, who wrote beautiful calligraphy and taught his students. One student seemed just like me. Impatient and wanting to see quick results. The student slowly learnt to let go of his expectation and to just keep trying. The monk taught him to breath with each stroke. To pause and stop and not to rush. The experience became the enjoymemt not the outcome.

The art of calligraphy should be a required elective or class in high school.
It could add value to our busy pressured lives by teaching us students exactly what I learnt from my experience.To have patience with oneself, let go of comparison and expectation.To enjoy a moment and breathe.
I think we taking breathing forgranted.I was anxious when I started learning calligraphy but calligraphy has now helped my anxiety.
In turn, I have learnt to approach other things with this attitude. I hope to see improvement and more enjoyment in some of my classes that I find challenging by giving it the time and patience it needs.I feel like I have learn a good life skill from attempting to learn calligraphy.
It has highlighted to me that things take time and patience. I.learnt to warm up. Just doing ovals over and over first. Then it flows better when I write that letter A. Little things matter and learning takes time.
Another thing to add is I learnt to check my nib. That would have saved a lot of frustration if I learnt that earlier!!

I truly believe it would benefit a high schooler to learn this art in school. Fonts are fun and this art teaches so much more than pretty writing.