Why lefties are superheroes we admire!
While there are those in our society who still wrongly believe that left handedness is morally wrong and scoff at it like it’s some despicable trait, for some people, to become left handed would be akin to being born in another country on the other face of the planet — life would’ve been a completely mind blowing experience altogether.
At a time when science is discovering connections between left handedness and creativity, superhuman memory, being an Einstein or even an Oprah, and so on, life on the left hand side now seems fashionable to some in the right-handed majority, with them going as far as teaching their left hands to work just as well as their right counterparts to ‘improve’ ourselves. But is being lefty just as glamorous for lefties themselves? Like being the invincible Superman without the touch of Clark Kent’s sad backstory. To find out the truth, Asido Campus Network pulled answers from a round table discussion with the lefties among us. Here’s what we received:
❤ I was lucky to have never been beaten as a child. But the embarrassments were crazy. One was when I came for post UTME in Ibadan. I was out with my cousin one morning. The bus conductor did not have change, so my cousin asked that I bought sweets from one woman along the road. Hurrying, I handed her the money with my right hand and started picking the sweet with my left. Her reaction was shocking. She started shouting, creating a scene, talking about how me I want to ruin market for her early in the morning, that it is not compulsory she sells to me. I should take my left hand off her tray.
I felt like entering the floor.
Today, if anybody changes it for me, I will change it back oh. Don’t kill me please. Na left hand I dey use, I no kill person. Read more of my story here
— ADEKUNLE Titus❤ I was once eating Amala at the cafeteria jejely after school at the hospital, when an elderly man I don’t know came to me and said;
“ You can’t find husband to marry you. In fact, if my son brings someone left-handed like you home, I’ll send her away!!”
I just looked at him, nodded and continued eating. Then went to my room and cried. I can’t come and cry on an empty stomach, lol.
For some reason, I keep wondering if it’s worse because I’m female, because I’ve had so many unsolicited insults, from random people, teachers, even patients. Read more of my story here
— OMOPARIOLA Abimifoluwa❤ My parents once had my hands tied up for 2 days. Afterwards, immediately they untied my hands the first hand I used was my left hand. That was the moment they realized they was no need punishing me.
— OMADU Veronica
❤ I had to stop my mom from troubling my youngest brother to quit his left-handedness; they didn’t understand that it’s beyond their control
— ASAMA Temitope
❤ Honestly, I didn’t really notice it when I was younger. I knew everybody else used right, but I wasn’t treated “differently” by family or teachers because I used left.
The people I could relate with were limited, as we are close knitted in my family and we usually feel like we are enough for one another. The only thing I remember is that, whenever I bought something and I would stretch my left hand, there was this woman who smile at me then correct me. Because she was nice, I just tried to use my right hand to give or receive things. At first, my dad didn’t like it when I used my left hand to eat, but when he saw that I honestly couldn’t eat with my right, he advised me to use a spoon or fork anytime i want to eat, including morsels. My classmates in secondary school actually really admired my left handedness and made me feel really good as regards it. Some people asked me to teach them how to write with left. Sometimes, we would sit together, I would try to write with my right and they, their left.Fast forward to university, we would think that we are supposed to be enlightened, No!?! Oh goodness! I was frustrated. When I eat at restaurants, someone walks up to me many times to demand that I use my right hand to eat — excuse me, who are you? Are you okay? I was never silent about it, and I did not make it a point to actually listen to them, it doesn’t even get to me as I honestly grew up being comfortable with it, which isn’t going to change now. Honestly, I’m really grateful for the kind of environment I grew up in. Else, all these annoying talk in the university would have gotten to me. Finally, where I’m currently an intern, one of my colleagues talked down on me because of it at our staff meeting. However, every other person but me attacked him, isn’t that great? 😊— Aaishah Lawal
❤ A friend of mine who is a doctor said his patients wouldn’t let him collect her blood because he was left-handed. They always make him feel incompetent — ASAMA Temitope
❤ Yes, I can relate really. There was this time a lecturer slapped me because I gave him a document with my left hands not minding the fact that I was feeling dizzy because I was sick - OKE Oluwadamilola
❤ Deciding what hand to wield and work with took time. I always saw my left hand as “right” hand before my eyes opened. I mean, I still have to abstain from stirring soups in the public so I won’t be spoken to with sorry stares and my fate for being a female won’t be forecasted. For me, If the left hand isn’t right, then it’s the wright! — AJANAKU Fātimah
Lefties are born, not made, yet many a time their plights are invisible to the rest of us. A large number of us in the right-handed majority remain oblivious of life on its left-hand side — the side of the 10% . What better way is there to describe a reality where many things aren’t created with you in mind than with incompatible right and left sides: from writing across spiral bound notebooks in schools to cutting cardboards with scissors as children, even to stepping on the right sided brakes of a moving vehicle, everything seems made excepting the use of the left hand(or foot) in their designs. If you take a look at your Whatsapp keyboard, you’d be hit with the realization of just how right-handed our world is.
So next time, before you sit next to a lefty whether during class or lunch, remember that they already have enough on their plate. “Do us the favor of sitting on our right side or in front of us to avoid arms clashing in the middle of the meal — ” with regards from a lovable lefty.
Written by Ogunlana Olaoluwaposi, student of Medicine & Surgery, University of Ibadan. When he is not writing about mental health, you can find him daydreaming about drinking iced tea in the Bahamas.
