One of the best reactions I get when people find out certain things about me are when they find out I'm left handed. Their eyes get huge, their heads tilt, and they say "You're left handed??" as if it's a totally new concept and no one else in the history of the world has ever been left handed. And most of the time I'm just like "Yep. Been a lefty since pretty much forever...where have you been?" If the person is someone that I'm just getting to know, it's ok-but I've had people that I've been friends with for several years suddenly realize that I write with my left hand and they think it's like the craziest thing EVER.
You guys, it's no big deal.
And to show you how much it's not a big deal, I've compiled a list of famous left handed people.
-President Barack Obama
-Leonardo Da Vinci
-Jim Carrey
-Judy Garland
-Jimi Hendrix
-Julia Roberts
-Sly Stallone
-Pierce Brosnan
-Neil Armstrong
-Paul McCartney
And there's WAY more than this.
(And trust me, we've all heard that left handed people die sooner than right handed people. You don't need to tell us that EVERY TIME.)
But the reason I brought all of this up is because in my English class today, a kid was complaining that he had to switch his desk every class because whoever sits in the same spot in an earlier class uses a left handed desk. Now, I could understand if it was one of the "half" desks (and I use quotation marks because there is NO way those should count as half) but it wasn't. It went all the way across the lap. And he just kept complaining about it.
It took a lot of effort not to punch him in the face.
I mean, left handed people use right handed products all the time. Left handed people die from using right handed products. And you couldn't suck it up for one class period where we maybe wrote for 5 minutes?? Here's a list of right handed products that left handed people use all the time. (Yes, another list. I like lists. DEAL WITH IT. lol)
-Spiral Notebooks. Now you wouldn't think that this would be a big deal, but you try writing with a spring digging into your hand every time you start a new line. Comp notebooks aren't a whole lot better, contrary to popular belief. (Pencils are a pain too, because the side of your hand goes over the already written part of the paper, smudging everything and leaving the side of your hand with a nice gray sheen.) I was so excited when I went into the Missouri State bookstore and found left-handed notebooks. I have two types: one has the spiral at the top of the notebook, so it's kind of like a memo pad (which works for both left and right handed people) and one that has the spiral on the right side. It opens "backwards"-the pages turn right to left instead of left to right. It's sad that I had to wait until college before I could find anything like that!
-Desks. The main topic of this blog post. I think lefties become pros at finding creative ways to sit in desks and contort their bodies so they can actually write on the desk itself. I know that most of the time I just keep my notebook on my knee and write that way. It's easier than fighting with the desk. **I feel like I should mention that in my English class today, I was also sitting at a left handed desk. I wasn't mad at the guy in my class because he took a desk I needed, I was just mad that he complained so much.**
-Scissors. This was mainly a problem in Elementary. Little kid safety scissors aren't really made to cut upside down, and that's how I had to hold them so my fingers would fit. It was awkward. Now with "grown up" scissors, it's not such a big deal.
-Pens. Ok, so this isn't a problem, mostly a funny story. My dad is in this business network group, and one day he came home with a "left handed" pen. I was really confused because I had been using I guess what could be considered "right handed" pens my whole life and never had issues. But the pen itself was the same as every other pen. The logo printed on the pen, however, was backwards; only left handed people could easily read the print while using the pen. I thought it was hilarious, and it was one of my favorite pens for a long time.
-Measuring cups (the ones with a handle and the little spout on one side). Ok, sometime I want you to fill up one of those cups, hold it in your left hand, and try to pour. Awkward, right?
Those are just a few of the things us lefties learn to accommodate. So, next time you get stuck with a left handed desk (which hardly ever happens in reality because there are very few of them in each classroom and we usually hunt them down if they are available) think of it as a growing experience, a way to see how someone else lives every once and a while.
That's all for now! (Thanks for listening to me rant...)
Alaina! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment