In case you haven’t heard, August 13 is Left Handers Day. So let’s celebrate the uniqueness of being a leftie today!
There’s an official Left Handers Day website, if you want to check it out.
I didn’t have any family members who were left handed, so I learned how to do most things right handed. Didn’t seem strange to me at all.
I definitely wrote with my left hand, and have always used my left hand for holding utensils and the phone.
But otherwise, I’m a righty. When it comes to some sports, I’m ambidextrous –archery, shooting, racquetball, tennis, bowling… only recently I’ve started working on throwing with my left hand (it’s still in the “quite comical” phase).
I’ve heard horror stories of kids being forced to learn to be righties when growing up. I can’t imagine that. And in some countries, using your left hand to eat is a definite no-no. Amazing.
I’ve always loved the quote I put at the opening of this post. And I also love — “everyone is born right handed, only the greatest overcome it.”
I remember classrooms when they started to get desks for left-handed students. I didn’t feel they helped much. I started writing in spiral notebooks by using the last page first and writing on the back of the page — keeping the metal spiral to the far right and out of my way. It didn’t help “the smudge” from developing on the edge of my hand, but it made writing across the page easier.
Do you make check marks like this: 
I always have.
Do you use any tools specifically made for left-handed people? Do you have your mouse set up as a leftie? Have a left-handed clock? Notebook? Pen? Scissors?
Is your kitchen set up to flow ‘your way’ versus the ‘regular way’? 🙂
If you’re right handed and have left handed children in your life, what do you do to enable their left handedness?
It’s definitely a right-handed world and I know I don’t notice most things that a ‘true’ left handed person might notice since I do most things with my right hand. Buttons on remotes, for instance, set up for a righty; door knobs turn to the right. Pants with zippers — the opening is always on the right.
Lefties, chime in below! What’s your biggest challenge? Any funny stories to share?
Lisa J. Jackson is proud to be left handed. She’s also an independent writer and editor who enjoys working with manufacturing, software, technology, and realty businesses of all sizes. She loves researching topics, interviewing experts, and helping companies tell their stories. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Live to Write - Write to Live 
I m left handed ☺ 😇
Thanks for recognizing this important day.
My earliest memories of learning to adapt as a leftie was during craft time in kindergarten. There were few to no left-handed safety scissors. I adapted well using the right-handed ones for cut and paste activities. I learned to play baseball as a right-handed batter. Later on, working with computers, I learned to use the ever-present right-handed mouse. Now, with the Macbook, I can use my left hand on the trackpad to manoeuvre, pinch and click!
Theresa
Funny you brought up scissors. That’s my first memory of having to change from left to right.
I remember scissors in kindergarten too — remember grabbing the green-handled scissors for lefties and not ever being able to cut with them — I was using my *right* hand! That memory sticks with me…even the teacher couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but there I was, holding lefty scissors in my right hand and not getting anything done. lol 🙂
Thanks for pointing out the track pad – I was curious if setting it up lefty was important. So many things to adapt to!
I am also a left hander.
so true…
I was born a leftie and changed to a rightie in kindergarten. I can’t say it fits into the horror category. I don’t think I really noticed. I’m terrible at sports with a ball – the hand eye coordination thing just gets me, and my handwriting can be unreadable, so I blame the change in left to right – it’s a good excuse anyway 🙂
LOL. Thanks for sharing, Kristina. With unreadable handwriting, are you a doctor? 😉
Ha ha. High tech girl – computer mathematics degree – not much hand writing required.
My baby bro is a leftie. Back in the day, his first job was in a local Micky-D’s. He didn’t last long because the assembly line was right handed-centric. It was quite the blow to his adolescent eagerness to work when he wasn’t shifted to a different area (you had to start on the assembly line) where he would have shone like a star. His enthusiasm for Micky-D’s products was infectious.
Until that time, his being a leftie only meant how we all had to sit at the table to accommodate our elbows during meals. I was totally clueless.
I think now-a-days, that place of employment would be considered ‘intolerant and insensitive’ to the needs of its employees…
I love lefties!!!!!
I totally forgot about the seating issue — I always grab a seat at the end (head) of a table, or a corner without thought now, but bumping elbows is a definite issue with lefties and righties. 🙂
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For what it’s worth I did a whole month of blogs on trying to be left handed for the A-Z blog challenge. https://philjackman.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/ambidextrous/
Thank you for the link — I’m curious to see what you discovered as a righty trying things as a lefty. 🙂
I have a whole month of blogs during April on the topic, from ambidextrous to (human) zoo.
🙂 thanks, Phil!
I’m a leftie child of a leftie mother. She lived through some of the awful battles of people not accepting her left-handed-ness, and she was determined it would never happen to me. So, leftie scissors were always available to me (later I learned there was a visit to the school before I started kindergarten, and the message was passed up, year by year), I got to sit on the left corner of the table at lunch – very important, and if you a re a rightie, you probably never knew… 🙂 there are so many lefties in the family now that we have our own side at Thanksgiving. 🙂
But in the 6th grade, I remember sitting during a spelling quiz when the teacher marched up to the girl ahead of me, picked up her hand, did something I couldn’t see, and firmly put it back down. I knew she was left handed, and all I got out of that experience was that she was writing wrong. Being timid, I simply stopped writing in that class (English!) A few zeroes later and Mom was at the school. Turns out the girl was writing “back handed” and he wanted to cure her of that. I hold the pen properly, was never in danger, but had no idea. Different days (I hope) of teaching practices.
Today, the main tools I have are leftie sewing scissors and pinking shears – a real horror to try to use right-handed ones of those!
I have learned to put the mouse on the left but leave the buttons alone, and I don’t use spiral bound notebooks anymore.
Thank you for sharing so much! I don’t think I own anything specifically for lefties. I still write in notebooks starting in the back, but mostly I use notepads instead, so there aren’t any creases to worry about. Otherwise, I suppose I’m lucky to do many things right handed. 🙂
I am a proud leftie, with a mother who was also one. I posted this true story about her today. Years ago, left-handedness was something to be mocked. Thankfully, I had a mother who understood and embraced mine. As soon as I started sewing, she bought me leftie scissors. What a difference they make!
Here’s the link to story:
https://livelifeincrescendo.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/leftie-day-celebrating-latent-talents/
Thanks for sharing, Wendy. I don’t have any immediate relatives who are left handed – must have some cousins somewhere that are, though. 🙂
I’m right handed but left eye dominant, that doesn’t count does it?
Not quite, but thank you for reading and commenting. 🙂
I thought so, thank you for reading my comment and replying
It took me years to realize I was left eye dominant (never knew what it meant), and that’s when I realized how much better I could aim when shooting at targets. 🙂
I realised i was left eye dominant when my secondary school did london 2012 week and we did olympic sports. one of them was shooting. I was given a right handed one and I couldn’t see the target. everyone at that round finished except for me. The guy who camp in to teach us asked what’s wrong. I told him i couldn’t see through the viewfinder. He asked me to position my hands to where I held a camera view finder then as if in shock went ‘she’s left eye dominant.’ It obviously made it harder. Later I go to the opticians for an eye test (which at the time I hadn’t been for 13 years!) and I was told when I was little I had a squint in my right eye, explaining why I was left eye dominant and the optician could tell in the tests although my sight is great and no worries, she could see the right eye straining at times. So no shooting for me (!)
Glad you finally figured things out — bet life got a bit easier after knowing which eye was more dominant. That’s quite a story. Thank you for sharing!
I’ve noticed left-handed children write and wonder how they do it when they immediately cover up what they’re writing. They used to love it when I included a lesson in Arabic writing. Then the righties (like me) had the handicap.
Interesting point. I never think about covering up the words as I’m writing. I write, I move on. 🙂 I did have to learn how to write without smudging every single word, though! Great point about Arabic…maybe I’ll give that a shot just to see what it’s like. 🙂
I’m a leftie and proud of it. Spiral notebooks are the worst things ever invented – I turn them upside down or work from back to front so the spiral is always to the right side. Scissors and computer mouse – right handed. I blame RSI in my right hand on being forced to use right handed utensils and tools in my ‘weak’ hand. Relatives who were left handed – one aunt on my father’s side, my maternal grandfather, one cousin. We’re rare in my family.
Thank you for sharing, Scribbler. 🙂
Well I am a new blogger (as of yesterday) and a new author (currently writing)… This is awesome… because I stumbled upon a Left Handers day day (is that grammatically correct O.o) that I did not know about and I am left handed. Well! Thank you! to all the people and right handers that are recognizing our genius! =)
Sounds like you had quite the day Thursday. So glad you discovered the blog and left us a comment. Happy writing and congratulations on starting your own blog! 🙂
Thank you!
Reblogged this on The Evaporation and commented:
I am a left handed man!
Reblogged this on Shewrite63 and commented:
Lefties shall seize the day!
My son is left handed, my brother and father too and some of my cousins, nephews and nieces. I’m on the other hand is right handed. Funny thing is, whenever I take one of those psychological tests to determined whether which part of my brain is more dominant, I always got the same result: both.
I think ‘both’ is a fun result — does that make you a balanced person? 🙂 So many lefties in your family – quite rare!
I don’t know if I m balanced and in what aspect. All I can say is lots of people say I am more like a man than a woman when it comes to making decisions and knowing what I want.
Two out of four family members in this house are lefties! Great website link – just had great fun shouting out the famous leftie names to my husband and daughter and they are definitely even more proud!
Thanks for commenting, Catherine – and sharing out the lefties news. 🙂
Most of my family is left handed & I am somewhat due to an accident in high school. Everything has always been set up around me for lefties so I’ve never noticed it. I’ve also worked in offices where my boss has sorted everything to make life easiest for a lefty. The only things that snap me from my “this is normal” mentality is when mom & I sit next together for a meal (she has to be on my left) or when I answer a landline phone (keep forgetting I can’t write for anything left handed).
I hadn’t thought about making notes while on the phone – but you’re right. I hold the phone with my left hand, so generally tuck it to my shoulder in order to free up my hand to write. With cell phones now, I can place the call on speaker and have both hands free, too. 🙂
My biggest frustration was using right-handed scissors for sewing, which left a painful indent on the backside of my thumb. Thankfully they finally invented left-handed scissors! I was also a little nervous using the gear shift on the right side when learning how to drive. But a highlight growing up, after throwing the baseball for several years using my right hand, was throwing it with my left hand and impressing my dad with how strong and skilled I actually was!
Using right-handed scissors with a left hand is definitely a struggle! (Same in reverse as I had the lefty-scissors in my right hand!) You’d be great driving in England, huh? 🙂 Nice childhood highlight about impressing your father. Thank you for sharing so much!
When I was in college I took all my notes backwards (as in mirror image). It started as something I practiced when I was bored, but it came so naturally (in kindergarten I was always getting in trouble for writing my name this way), and it was so much easier that I just started taking all my notes, even calculus backwards. It was a great conversation starter. It backfired once when I found out at the end of the class that we had to turn our notes in. I had to scan the pages, flip them in Photoshop and print them out. But I never had to worry about anyone looking over my shoulder at what I was writing.
Writing backwards? Wow! I’ve never thought of that. What an amazing talent — and I love how you didn’t have to worry about people copying your notes. But I suppose it also kept you from offering to share your notes to help someone out!
I still got to help some attractive young men out. It just involved spending more time together.
🙂
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I say we all have a bit of both “brainies” dominance!
Yes, I think so… definitely a variable scale, though! 🙂
I’m a lefty and I had no idea lefty day was even a thing…
I’ve always used right-handed things. I don’t really notice the difference. Opening a can with a can-opener is always an interesting experience…
I went through a phase when I wrote everything in mirror writing. Why did I stop? It was so fun…
Now that you know lefty day is a thing, I hope you remember it each year. It’s fun. 🙂 I think I’ve finally adjusted to the can opener issue – you’re right about it. Writing in the mirror, wow, what a skill — and, yes, why did you stop if it was fun? 🙂
I think I stopped because my friends thought it was weird… and also my teachers last year loved taking our books to mark all the time…
Why are most people right-handed?
“The sound of the mother’s heartbeat that babies became so familiar with inside the womb becomes imprinted on the embryo before birth and the rediscovery of this familiar sound next to the mother’s left breast after birth produces a vitally familiar and tranquil soothing influence on the infant.” —Judith Land
Holding a baby with the left hand provides a tremendous calming effect because it places the head of the baby closest to the mother’s heart. Through imprinting, unconscious instinct, and trial and error, mothers soon discover that a baby is more at peace if held on the left side against her heart. Cradling a baby with the left hand leaves the right hand free to manipulate the environment, prepare meals, do work, defend against insects, pests and predators, and since the beginning of time communicate using ancient sign language.
https://judithland.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/why-are-most-people-right-handed-judith-land/
Thank you for sharing this, Judith!
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