Being a Lefty

This is a blog about how wonderful and sometimes not-so-wonderful it is to be a lefty.
To those right-handed people who read this, don't worry, you are special too.
Just not as special.

So why is a person left-handed, you may ask?
Research is still a little unclear why we are so amazing, but many ascribe it to genetic and environmental factors. Although some people may come to the conclusion that it is decided by whatever hand they first pick up a pencil with, research shows that hand orientation begins even before a child is born.

But who cares? The fact is, we are special.

We have learned to adapt in a world that favors right-handedness.

Just imagine being a child in kindergarten, searching through a pile of brightly-colored, plastic grip scissors and finding that the only lefty pair is plain silver and extremely uncomfortable. What do you do? You learn to use the right-handed scissors.

Imagine going through elementary, junior high, and high school where your teachers demand you write long essays and assignments and tests in pencil. Do you know what this means for a lefty!? It means a paper full of smudged graphite. It also means a large smudges of grey running down your hand and even onto your sleeve. What do you do? You wash your hands after every class and roll up your sleeves when you write.

Now imagine being in college, trying to find a left-handed desk. You realize in some of your classrooms, there are none. in other classrooms, the two left-handed desks are in the back, far-left corner of the room. What do you do? You learn to love the fact that you can lean your right elbow on your desk, while your left hand maintains a slightly awkward position on the left. I'm really in love with this flyer--especially the part that says, "Is this desk an instrument of ?" YES, I say to all the wicked desk creators, yes it is.

So being a lefty is kind of a challenge.
BUT.
We are also amazing.

Continue reading to find out how amazing:

"Left-handed persons are thought to process information using a 'visual simultaneous' method in which several threads can be processed simultaneously. Another way to view this is such: Suppose there were one thousand pieces of popcorn and one of them was colored blue. Right-handed people—using the linear sequential processing style—would look at the popcorn one at a time until they encountered the blue one. The left-handed person would spread out the pieces of popcorn and look at all of them to find the one that was blue. A side effect of these differing styles of processing is that right-handers need to complete one task before they can start the next. Left-handers, by contrast, are capable and comfortable switching between tasks. This seems to suggest that left-handed people have an excellent ability to multi-task, and anecdotal evidence that they are more creative may stem from this ability to multi-task." (Wikipedia: Left Handedness)

As a side note, I really, really love the popcorn analogy.

Instead of solving problems and analyzing them a piece at a time, we solve it by looking at the whole.
We are usually more creative.
And there are more people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people.

Think of the left-handed people that have lived. To name a few--Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, and Aristotle. We are creative and sometimes even brilliant.

We are famous. The finalists of American Idol last season (David Cook and David Archuleta) were both left-handed. Oprah is left-handed.

Lefties have a habit of being powerful politically also--Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon. Our presidents also have a habit of being left-handed also--Obama, Bush, and Clinton.
Even amidst the the prejudice and the discrimination, it is pretty great to be a lefty.
We look for each other. We notice other lefties. And apparently we may be attracted to other lefties also...

So next time you notice a lefty in a class or at the store...admire us.
Because life can be a little harder for us, even when we are so amazing.