Life for the left-handed

I remember in first grade my teacher would smack my left hand hard with a ruler for writing left handed. When my grandparents saw me coming home with welts on my hand. They had a sit down conference with the teacher & gave him heck. He eventually eased up on punishing me with the ruler & learned to accept that you can't force someone to do what you want them to be. Us lefties we're just beautifully unique in our own loving Southpaw way.

Love being a lefty but trying to adjust to a right-handed world is a real challenge.

Decades ago, in high school, one of my classes, 14 of us and the teacher, went out for a year-end Iunch. We sat down at the long table set up for the occasion, seven of us on one side, seven on the other—and then realized that the seven of us on one side were all left-handed and the other seven on the other were all right-handed. If not coincidence, it was completely unconscious—we didn’t know quite what to make of it. The teacher, at the head of the table, who happened to be left-handed, seemed quite amused by the whole thing.

My oldest child is 32 and she is left handed. My mother in law tried to convince me to force her to write with her right hand. I told her I would not do that and I didn't.

I remember when I told one of my college friends that I love left-handed people like him and think they’re cool (I’m right-handed unfortunately). He said, “God made a few perfect people - the rest of them are right-handed!” 😂🤣😂

I am a left handed software developers and I have always been amazed by how many of my peers are also left handed. I’ve actually been to events where left handed were the majority. It felt good for a change 😀

Being left handed benefits me greatly...when I had a massive stroke it affected my right side, therfore I didn't have the struggles of having to relearn writing or the loss of major skills because I kept my dominant hand.

I was married 30 years to a left handed long haul trucker. He graduated #1 at an intensive truck driving school. He said backing up, turning twisting the truck trailer in and out of impossible sometimes risky spots was easy for him. After he died at 68, COPD and Diabetes complications, it finally occurred to me, he had spent 35 years shifting 18 gears with his right hand for millions of miles!! I was always very impressed with his driving skills and now, just wow!

My son is the only left-handed in the family. It always made me mad when at first grade, the teacher wrote a word on the left side of the notebook for him to copy as homework. To write it, he had to put his left hand on the word, so he couldn't see it, while all his classmates did. I would erase it and write it on the right side. Also got the: "issues with fine motor skills" for not being able to cut properly. Discovering scissors for lefties was amazing... He did learn to do lots of things with his right hand, like using can-openers. He is an adult now and adapted pretty well.

When I was in 3rd grade, they were trying to get me to write right handed, I told my Mom about it and it suddenly stopped the next day.

In my youth, I'm 76, us lefties we're forced to be right handed. I cannot use left handed scissors as I grew using 'right'. In my early 30s my left hand was disconnected, hanging on by skin, from my arm @ the wrist. It was put back on in surgery. Took mos. with casts being changed in various positions to avoid fusing, if possible. The 1st cast was from fingertips to armpits. I started stuttering, didn't know why. Dr said it'd stop when I could use my left hand again, & it eventually did (& boy, did my brain have fun trying to figure out where my hand went while reconnecting). Being left handed is not 'wrong'....it's just being opposite of the same thing. HUGS2U ❤

I think lefty awareness is much better than when I was young (I am 60), but I have always been happy to be a lefty. It can be a bit of a challenge if you think about how much of the world is built on right handed assumptions. I think it definitely makes me more adaptable to changing circumstances. I learned most sports right handed, as the people who taught me were right handed. For instance, I learned to golf right handed with my father's clubs. When I bought my own set of clubs I bought a left handed set and just switched over. I can still bowl with either hand. One oddity I observed (no idea how universal this is), but it seems most lefties are better at mirroring right handers than the reverse. My wife was getting her first education degree and one of the assignments was to have someone else teach her something. I decided to take her to the driving range. I finally had to give up and show her by golfing right handed. She said everything I did looked backwards to her. To my mind I immediately reverse what I am looking at without thinking about it. Odd.

On Saturday I received my very first pair of left handed scissors that actually cut!!!! Look out world my crafts will finally be cut the correct way!!!

Out of 19 kids only 4 siblings were left-handed. And they are all very Gifted and smart in my family. I was so envious of my siblings, being a right-hander in all.

my mother was left handed back then in school they forced you to use your right hand and would smack your hand if you wrote with your left hand. They thought you were possessed by the devil as said in the segment. My grandfather put a stop to it pronto told the teacher if she hit his daughter again for being left handed she would get the same treatment on her hand. Never had a problem again.

Lefties learn to be ambidextrous pretty early. I can bowl with either hand, I play racquet sports with my left. I throw with my right. I bat with either hand. I can write with my right hand if I have to. I like lefty spiral notebooks and pens that don't smear. Had a hard time when I taught with a whiteboard and markers. Right-handed desks in school were a challenge. Thank goodness I learned how to write without having to contort myself. I just move the paper instead. I use my mouse right-handed and write with my left all at the same time. Very convenient.

From birth a left hander must subconsciously adapt to a right handed world. Without knowing they are doing it. This might explain greater creativity and intellect in the left handed community. But also explains the greater feeling of inadequacy and the higher rates of mental stress among left handed people. Thank you for this show which i hope every left handed child sees.

I'm an artist and I'm left-handed, and through the years have known many artists that were also left-handed. So, I have always believed there is something connected to creativity and being left-handed. Has it posed a problem?... I did learn early on as a child to use right-handed scissors, and of course those ridiculous right-handed desks in high school!

This is so cool. I’m fascinated by lefties. I love to watch them write. I do agree with them about lefties thinking in a different way. Seems like a positive thing.🤓

I'm a lefty and proud of it!🤩