I have a feeling whoever is reading this will fall into one of two people, unless you are the lucky people who can use both your right and left hand. The first being predominantly right-handed people, asking what struggles do lefties have and the second being predominantly left-handers going yes.
Lefties make up a mere 10% of the population with the Netherlands being one of the highest percentages of lefties per country. There are lots of studies as to why the percentages vary so much but the numbers have not changed in the last couple of thousands of years, which is an interesting fact for me to hear, as the generation before me, in Ireland anyway were forced to write with their right hand.
I remember my mother telling me stories about being in school and being forced to write with her right hand and face punishments for not doing it correctly. Me, myself, I am in my early thirties and remember being mocked by one of my teachers in school that I could not do something correctly because I was a leftie. I never understood at the time why it was so wrong being who I was. Most left-handed people write with their hands nearly looped around the sentences, where I have taught myself to write like a right-handed person with my left hand, which can actually be very tiring to do.
But thinking back on those like my mother who was made to change what was natural to them, have you ever tried to write with your other hand? I can tell you, if you have not or if you are not trying it right now, it is extremely difficult. Ancient history has that left-handed people are unlucky, shameful and a source of evil. Thankfully, this is not the case anymore, but lefties are still living in a right-handed world.
In some cultures, it is disrespectful to shake hands with your left hand, bless yourself with your left hand, eat food with your left hand and many more as the left hand is seen as unclean. But there is a lot of things that are not always obvious in a day to day basis that are genuine struggles for left-handers. Here is some that I can think of, although I am sure there is many more.
- Using a scissors
- Playing the guitar
- Knitting (most instructions are for a right-handed person)
- Opening a tin with a can opener
- Opening any bottle really as we are going against the easier way
- Ice cream scoopers
- Credit card readers
- Using a computer mouse, a friend using my laptop recently asked if I had it set as a left-handed keypad. I had not even thought of it even being possible as I had always adapted to using my right hand
- American style desks that have the table attached for right-handed people
- Writing itself is a challenge
- Spiral notebooks are a nightmare
- Sports equipment for example, for golf, is harder to come by
- Certain machinery is difficult for left-handers to manage, like a chainsaw or even a measuring tape
- Dinner around a small table, especially when it is round
- Dancing, I kid you not, I got kicked out of Irish dancing classes when I was younger as I just could not manage to get the moves with going with my right foot first
- Whiteboards or chalkboards
- Learning to tie your shoes, as stated above with knitting you are instructed by a right-hander, it does not work the same the other way around
- Joint writing
- Ticket machines at subways or metros are all on the righthand side
- Some people say cars, but I have driven on both sides of the car and it does not bother me so much
- Fun coffee mugs are generally the wrong way around for lefties
- Cameras are set up to the right side
- Most people assume everyone is right-handed. I broke my left arm before and got told by so many people how lucky I was it was not my right hand, apart from the lady in the bank that did apologise for making me write a signature with my right hand
I do not know if it is just me, but I do get super excited when faced doing a task with another leftie. Using your brain to do what is not natural can be difficult like mentioned above with dancing, it is where the term ‘two left feet’ came from, I guess. But with all that said there are some qualities with being a leftie. I have played many sports over the years that generally require just a ball and people don’t expect you to play towards the left side. I was once told the sport fencing is easier for left-handed people. My true style, I proved my instructor wrong with this one😉. Lefties tend to be better at thinking outside of the box, sure we do it every day, so I guess it becomes second nature. There are some health benefits for being a leftie such as less risk of ulcers. There are many great famous people who are lefties, like Barack Obama and Leonardo Di Vinci.
So, there you have the highs and lows of being a leftie, let me know if you agree or if there are any other struggles you have found from being a lefty. And one thing that we have, that right-handed people don’t, is our own day. So, celebrate our uniqueness this August 13th.
