Yes, it looks much more neat...

A part of Jim wondered what on earth did being a girl have to do with the way one's penmanship looked like. He was about to chuck the magazine again when his mind caused him to pause and reread the premise of the questionnaire. As a guy, he didn't really care and he never focused on his handwriting as a doctor (pardon the chicken-scratch jokes about doctors handwriting). That's why he had assistants to transcribe and, with computers and internet entries, gone were the days of the prescription slip and the inevitable scrawl. In fact, Jim wasn't so certain that the rise of computer medical charts hadn't caused a significant decrease in medical accidents throughout the country. His nurses were certainly grateful.

The question read simply:

1.) IF YOU WERE A GIRL...WOULD YOUR HANDWRITING BE NICE?

He thought about that again in light of his experiences with his own kids. Far bit for him to put any of his children down or love one more than the others (he didn't, he loved each as much as the next), Jim had to admit that his daughters were more proficient in their works and their handwriting was by far better stylistically and just easier to read than any of his sons. Even looking further back with his own family, his handwriting was atrocious since he was able to first write and this had never changed. His mother often joked that the war injuries suffered by her father must've been genetic as Jim's scrawl had looked like his. His sister Tabitha was known for her calligraphy and the christmas cards received every year would put machine-generated ones to shame.

Jim's mom was a former primary school teacher and so the two of them had to practice lines, writing, dictation, penmanship was often a source of conflict between the two of them. He laughed a little remembering the the arguments that were often heated between them growing up until she finally relented (somewhat), once his letter of acceptance came from medical school. Jim ruefully decided that he would choose a career that excused atrocious handwriting. Tabitha just laughed at him, teasing him that he had taken the simpler course of action.

Turning his attention back to the questionnaire, he picked it up and took his pen, deciding that if this was an exercise in thinking about alternate histories and the like, he would take what he guessed would happen and go with it. Yes, I would have neat handwriting. He looked at his response and laughed a bit, the idea of having legible writing be a gift of sorts in comparison. If anything, maybe that would raise morale here in the office? Perhaps.

As he got up, he didn't notice the slight slimming of his arms, a slight tingling in his wrists were barely noticed as they immediately dissipated and he mentally dismissed them from sitting down too long and writing notes on patient files. The girls loved the margin notes instead of edits so he just followed their wishes. It also helped that his writing tended to be a bit better than the other doctors on staff.

****

Coming from work, Jim found himself loosening his tie and placing his jacket up to hang out, feeling little desire really to handling any more paperwork from the day and just going through the motions getting ready for bed took more energy than what he felt he had. His wife Teresa was already in bed, sound asleep, and as he came to bed, he pulled out the questionnaire and set it down next to his side of the bed. A part of him wondered why he even bothered to bring it home with him but it was still something fun to look at, the desire to throwing it away had ironically been thrown out of his mind completely. A distraction, nothing else, but a fun one nonetheless.

2.) IF YOU WERE A GIRL...WOULD YOU LIKE PINK?