Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The pleasures and perils of being a lefty

I couldn't resist the "Leftorium" picture..


I know I've been a little MIA this week with my blogging, both with my posts and with reading everyone elses' but I'm stuck in exams this week, so other then logging hours in the library and in front of my laptop, there hasn't been much else for me to do. Fear not, I write my last 2 exams tomorrow, so after that I promise I will catch up on all your blogs!


This leads me to the title of this post. I wrote my first exam yesterday. 3 hours and 9 pages SINGLE SPACED written. By the end my hand was cramping so badly my writing resembled that of a pre-schooler. I was also covered in ink. As a lefty, I've grown accustomed to the semi-premanent blue mark on the bottom of my hand. Yesterday seemed particularily bad for some reason, by the end my hand was covered in blue ink.

That got me thinking of the difference between right and left handed people. I remember as a kid growing up, there was really no one in my classes that was also left handed, so people used to stare at me in wonder going "how do you do that?"

My father is also a lefty and when he was younger, they used to tie his hand behind his back to force him to write right-handed (it never worked). I believe I've heard that in old myths people who were left handed were considered sinister and evil. Go figure.

The perils also include not being able to use proper scissors, can openers and baseball gloves

The pleasures...

I'll get back to you.

Being different I suppose, I always notice when someone is left handed, and I guess I tend to gravitate towards them. Five of my close friends are lefties as well, which is quite a number seeing as we're supposed to only make up a small percentage I believe.

I know there are some other fellow bloggers out there who are "sinister" so I'd love to know your opinions on this subject as well as all you right-handed bloggers and what you think.

Have a great week everyone!

12 comments:

  1. I can definitely relate to this post! I'm "sinister" as well (haha!) and have gone through my whole life with a smudged left ring-finger and hand. The worst is writing an exam or attending a class when they only have "right-handed" mini desks available. The good thing is that it made for a great tennis serve!

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  2. I always notice lefties, too, although I'm a righty through and through. I don't know what it is about lefties, but there's something different about you all. I think you really are "right-brained"....isn't that how it works? Lefties=right brained, righties=left brained? I always wanted to be ambidextrious.

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  3. i`ve always wanted to be left handed. a lot of people in my family are ambidextrous, but i am a very normal boring righty. sad, huh?

    can we still be friends?

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  4. @ Life Abroad, omg yes the desk situation is so terrible at my university i got used to using the right-handed desks and kind of lean over, thankfully not many of my classes have those tables anymore

    @ Fidgeting Gidget, I think you're right about the left and right brained thing, but I don't remember what side does what. I always wanted to be ambidextrous too, that would have been so practical

    @ Sarah, hmmmmm I'll have to think about that .... haha, duh of course we can still be friends! And trust me, you are definitely not just a boring righty

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  5. At least we're not still living in the days where lefties were ostracized and forced to learn to use their right hands...See? People can evolve!

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  6. ELLA! i gave you an award on my blog! yay!

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  7. my guy is left handed but he also uses his right hand sometimes, in particular activities like smoking. i really didnt notice it that much till he told me. guess it doesnt really makes a difference, though there are disadvantages also.

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  8. @ M.J - that's so true, i'd be quite screwed because i can barely hold a pen in my right hand

    @ sarah - yay! i <3 you!

    @ twopenneth - it probably just depends on the person, i know lots of lefties who do a lot of things with their right as well, i'm completely lefty

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  9. In baseball left handed pitchers or batters are considered invaluable. Hitters especially are thought of as "pure". lol

    As for me, I'm right all the way, even in the political spectrum :P However for some reason in golf it only feels comfortable swinging left handed. In baseball I can switch hit, but my natural side is to the right.

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  10. @ Chris - hmmm that's interesting, didn't know that. Now if only I played baseball :)

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  11. Hi!

    This made me laugh because my grandpa used to bandage up my dad's hand when he was young to force him to use his right hand (I know, talk about the dark ages..). Strangely I eat left handed..

    Anyway, on the sinster thing - in Italy, the word for left is sinistra. Plus the spiral staircase in medieval castles always run clockwise to advantage the right-handed swordsmen defending coming down. Neat huh?

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  12. Hi O! Thanks for your comment. I never knew that about Italian. That's really cool, and the medieval castles thing is awesome :)

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