Left-handed people have it the worst
By Katie Czenczek, Staff Writer
It’s been said before, and it will likely be said again; being left-handed is hard.
I almost understand my grandma tying my left arm behind my back when I was a kid, telling me to write with the “right” hand—pun intended. She thought she was helping me, because back in her day, lefties were synonymous with the Devil and kids would be punished at school for trying to write with the “wrong” hand. Historic lefty oppression aside, being left-handed in the modern world still has its drawbacks.
It’s always a struggle to use everyday objects that are made solely for right-handed people. Scissors become a painful, imprecise experience as you attempt to cut out a circle for a school project, only to have the upper lip of the scissor dig into your thumb. Can you imagine cutting with a right-handed knife as a left-handed person? It doesn’t work. The carrots are always cut in awkward angles and are unevenly sized. Lefties who work in trades often run into the problem of having right-handed only power tools, which can be life-threatening. (Though WorkSafe wouldn’t allow this to happen now, it was common practice in the past for left-handed people to pretend they’re right-handed to be able to work).
At school, binders are rarely a viable option. Trying to take notes down while the binder rings jut out awkwardly into your forearm is uncomfortable and inefficient. Moreover, picking a spot in the lecture hall becomes extremely limited as the only designated row for lefties is always on the farthest left aisle, which can fill up quickly if there happens to be a lot of left-handed people at that lecture for whatever reason. Getting a decent spot is already difficult enough for the average student, but add being left-handed and it’s that much worse.
You might think that sitting at classroom tables is easier than lecture halls, but it is an entirely different issue of its own. It must be nice for right-handed people to go to class where they’re the majority. Imagine being able to walk into a class and not have to worry about strategically placing yourself on the left side of whoever you sit next to, to avoid getting into an elbow-shoving match. People will decide that it’s your fault for the situation because you’re the weird one writing with the wrong hand. This is not just reserved for classrooms, eating at dinner tables is just as bad. Round tables are a lefty’s worst nightmare because there’s no edge to give you some space.
Plus, writing on a whiteboard is an almost impossible task as your hand drags across it, therefore nullifying the words you just wrote down. If you decide not to rest your hand on the board, you get clunky kindergarten writing that is basically illegible anyways, so really what’s the point in even trying?
The only thing that being left-handed is good for is baseball. To which you’re asked all the time, “You’re a lefty? Do you play baseball?” Apparently, baseball is the only career option for lefties. Everything else will kill you at the worst or be a great inconvenience at the least, so it may be time to change career paths.
There is a bright side to everything, however; at least we’re no longer being persecuted, or likened to the Devil.
