Approximately 10% of the population are Southpaws, and scientists don’t exactly know why a person develops left-handed-ness — but it’s more likely that a child will be left-handed if one of their parents is a lefty, too.
This holds true growing up in my immediate family because three out of the four of us were left-handed; my mom was the only right-hander.
I love being a lefty. Being a lefty means you are creative and imaginative with lots of daydreaming powers and intuition. Growing up, my love for being a lefty wasn’t always at the forefront, though. Let’s rewind time to kindergarten, 1984–1985, where yours truly was always being forced to try and use her right hand.
The red-handled scissors
I have this vivid core memory of being in kindergarten, where at the time, we used scissors that had either red handles (for right-handed people) or green handles (for the lefties). I never understood why there would only be one pair of green scissors and 15 red pairs! Guess what happens when you have two lefties in your class, and one is already using the lefty green pair? You either have to wait your turn to use the green pair and hope you get enough time, don’t get enough time to do your fun little kindergarten project because you were waiting on ol’ Sally lefty pants to finish up her stuff (and you swear she’s taking forever on purpose), or you get told by the teacher there are plenty of red-righty scissors, and you should just give them a try.
The pencil
Also on the list of core memories of being a lefty preschooler and kindergartener is when you innately pick up a pencil with your left hand, and the teacher would try to correct this and put it in your right hand.
“Is it just easier to teach a kid to write with their right hand versus their left?” A thought I always had as I got older.
It’s a mystery I will never solve, but that’s okay. I believe it made me the semi-ambidextrous person I am today because of it. Over time, I learned to use scissors primarily with my right hand because that was all that was ever available. I also use both of my hands with my computer mouse, switching from side to side if my hand gets tired. David Bowie, I have read, learned to play the guitar with his right hand because there weren’t enough left-handed guitars in the guitar shops of Great Britain. Kurt Cobain played guitar with his left and right hand, too, probably because he was also limited on left-handed options.
Sitting at a booth or table
Now let’s talk about seating placement when sitting down at a table as a lefty. I bet right-handers don’t give this much thought, but us lefties, we make it a point to not sit on the inside of a booth or table, or if we do, it needs to be with another lefty, otherwise you will bump elbows with your fellow right-hander when trying to eat. If you know a lefty who doesn’t care about this, they’ve probably adapted like we always do.
“How do you write like that?”
Another struggle as a lefty that you learn to live with is that smudge mark from your pen or pencil on the bottom of your left pinky finger. As you slowly write your sentence across your paper, your right-handed friends ask how you can even see what you are writing since your hand is covering it up. Easy, it’s a left-hander’s superpower, just tilt the paper and carry on!
Famous lefties
Taking a quick glance at a list of some famous lefties like Barack Obama, Babe Ruth, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Leonardo Da Vinci, you can see for yourself that each of these lefthanders has stood out in society in some unique way.
Honestly, I really wouldn’t want it any other way. Being a lefty means you are unique and creative and driven by a different force of nature (I like to believe), one where you have the ability to be able to adapt easier than others.
So, to all my left-handers out there, celebrate being different from the crowd, celebrate being unique, and celebrate being YOU. It’s your superpower that you just might have passed on to your children, our future world-changers!
Note: I am now the only left-hander in my house, but being a left-handed mom now gives me EXTRA superpowers. In addition to adapting to anything and EVERYTHING, I can also magically find all those things that my family can never find! “Hey mom have you seen the…?”
