It’s time to hand it to the lefties

Being a lefty in a right hand dominated world can be stressful and very irritating. As the list constantly grows, there are so many struggles left handed people face in their everyday lives.

When you go to a restaurant or just dine at your house, you don’t really have a choice but to take the outside seat. If you take any other seat, you will either be having an elbow war with the person next to you, or be hitting your arm against the booth – there is no in between.

Another struggle of being a lefty is baseball mitts. When I used to play Softball, or played a casual game of catch with my brother, I would always forget my mitt. That was a huge problem because coaches or my friends only had right handed mitts. I ended up catching more balls with my face than I did with my hand.

Although writing can be hard for everyone regardless of which hand you write with, it is an especially big struggle if you are left handed. You constantly spill ink all over the paper because your hand is dragging across the previously written words. You are also getting pencil led all over your writing hand. Do you really want a Picasso painting printed on your hand? I know I don’t, but hey, I’m left handed.

While we are talking about the struggle of writing, those pens on strings at the bank are my worst nightmare. It is so hard to sign a check with those pens because it either doesn’t reach your left hand, or you have to basically get in the line next to you in order to sign it. It’s such a production to sign my name at this point it might as well just be another bank fee.

Scissors can be a struggle, as well. Although most places are getting used to accommodating to left handed people, it is not uncommon to find that people don’t have this holy grail. It isn’t just as simple as flipping the scissors upside down, either. You need the right kind of scissors or else you’ll be the kid who’s paper looks like it survived a shark attack.

Guitars are another issue when it comes to being leftie. Almost all of my friends are right handed so if I want to play their guitar, I can’t. No, I am not going to carry around my instrument with me all of the time and I am certainly not going to spent an hour restringing their guitar to be left hand compatible. Not all of us can Paul McCartney it and play upside down.  

Don’t even get me started on driving, either. It is so hard to have a cup holder on the right side of you while driving because that means you’ll have to use your right hand to grab a drink. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to clean up an unnecessary spillage because I can’t figure out how to pick up a glass with my floppy, weak, not dominate hand.

Another struggle of being left handed is having to learn how to do things the right way -literally- no matter how awkward it may be. I have learned how to write with my right hand because it is so much easier, even though my right handed writing looks like chicken scratch. I still can’t even figure out how to use a can opener with my opposite hand which means if I want to open a can, there’s no other choice but to either hit it with a hammer or wack it on a counter.

The biggest annoyance of all is that people always are so fascinated about you being left handed. At least three times a day someone sees me writing and says, “wow, I didn’t know you were a lefty,” including my best friends since seventh grade. People also like to tell you about how their great great grandmother or cousin are lefties, too, as if it is something totally uncommon. It’s cool that your ancient relatives were lefties as well, but you don’t understand the personal struggle.

Even with all of these struggles, lefties can do everything just as well as right handed people, it just takes a little more creativity (no, I am not talking about the accidental Picasso painting) and effort to get the task done.