I Am A Leftie!

I think with the right side of my brain.

Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash

**April 19:** Are you a “leftie”? If so, what challenges have you faced in life being a leftie? If not you, a child, sibling, or parent? Are you exclusively left-handed, or do you use your right hand for specific tasks?

Neither of my parents was left-handed. My grandfather was left-handed. The father of my kids was left-handed, but both of our kids were right-handed.

I always felt special being left-handed. I did not experience anyone trying to force me to write with my right hand. That did happen in the previous generation. The nuns tied my mother-in-law’s left hand behind her back so she learned to write with her right hand.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Christianity associated it with the Devil. Left- handed women were often suspected of being witches.

Lucky for me, I didn’t live then.

My father wanted me to be a tennis star. He watched Rod Laver and Martina Navratilova, two big tennis stars. He had visions of me following in their footsteps. Maybe his daughter would be on television in ten years smashing left-handed serves.

Unfortunately for my father, I was not motivated to be an athlete.

I did take some tennis lessons. My family purchased a right-handed glove for me to play softball with. I batted left-handed.

I learned to use scissors with my right hand. Scissors were annoying. They didn’t function correctly in my left hand. My mother was a kindergarten teacher, so I had a pair of child-sized left-handed scissors, but they didn’t work too well.

I loved music and took piano lessons. I discovered that I could play trills on the piano more quickly with my right hand, because it was a bit more disconnected from my brain. It felt natural to play the bass part with my left hand.

I remember working very hard to get recognized for penmanship in the third grade. I received a certificate. My mother covered the certificate in fancy plastic contact paper. I had ink smeared all over the back side of my left hand, but I was very proud.

Oh, better than the minting of a gold-crowned king,

Is the safe-kept memory of a lovely thing.

By Sara Teasdale

Did anyone else have to write this poem once a month to practice penmanship? I can still see the fancy yellow pens. They were made from plastic. I am not so old that they were pen and ink like this picture.

Photo by Robin Trim on Unsplash

Once in a while, I found a left-handed desk in a classroom in college. I used them when I found them, but I had gotten used to the right-handed desk

I cannot find a picture of a left-handed desk online!

Proof that it’s a right-handed world.

I Googled what causes left-handedness, and the results were a lot of complex factors. No one really knows. Even AI does not know.

Photo by Seen on Unsplash

The other day, I was playing Pickleball. A ball came very fast to my right. Without thinking, I switched the paddle to my right hand and returned the shot! I have never done that before!

I look forward to reading other writers’ left-handed stories!

Thank you, Do Capozucca, for the prompt! Do you, are you a leftie?

Here are April prompts, thanks to Adrienne Beaumont’s organizing skills.

[embed]April Arrives With More Writing Prompts for the Challenged We are here at the 25% mark…scary!medium.com