100 Things | Left-handed

4. I am left-handed.

When I started kindergarten my teacher was of that mind set that no one should be left handed. And so she made me do everything right handed. Because of that it really screwed up my thinking and slowed me down because I just couldn't get how to write using my right hand. I would at times switch to my left hand and she would come over and slap my hand and then stick the pencil or crayon in my right hand. So by the end of the year it was evident I wasn't getting things. It was suggested I take another year of kindergarten. So yes I had to repeat kindergarten thanks to a teacher who thought it was wrong to be left handed. I also have to say I started kindergarten when i was 4 because my birthday was on that line so they started me then even though most of the kids were 5. So in the new year I actually ended up being with my friends - kids from my neighborhood. But more importantly my new teacher let me be left handed. My teacher was a friend of my Mom's so that probably helped since the teacher knew me on a personal level.

I always liked being left handed because it was unique. And that combined with my unique name and I felt different. And I liked that (most of the time). But of course there are things about being left handed that sucked. I always had to sit with he other left handed people. In every grade until Jr. High my teachers always made all the left handed people sit together so we weren't bumping elbows with others. And that bothered me because teachers would move seating arrangement around a few times a year but really the lefties never changed because we always sat next to each other. And at times that didn't even make sense because our desks weren't always right up next to each so bumping elbows wouldn't have been an issue but we still sat next to each other.

I have problems at times though learning things that are taught from a right hand perspective. Like in gym when they were teaching us golf I had a hard time converting what I was seeing into how I would stand and do things with my left hand. And I think really some of that goes back to kindergarten when I was forced to be right handed it made brain goes "can't compute!" I can logically sit here and say okay if their right hand was on top my left hand would be on top. But when I am standing there watching and then have to do it...I get confused. I know I stopped doing sports partly for that reason because I couldn't get it.

There are a lot of little things daily that remind me that I am left handed. But I still like that I am left handed.