If things don't look right, go left.

Hello reader friend. I don't know why today I remembered my mother, when as a child she told me that the left hand was not good for anything, not even to clean the.. (here she mentioned a certain part of the body, which I will not say). That's how it was at that time, the criterion of right-handed people, they saw everything straight.

If you lived your childhood in the 60s, 70s, you will understand me. And even more so if you are left-handed. If you are a young writer, then I will tell you that left-handed people, like me, did not have a good time at that time.

As a child, I was considered incapable and clumsy for using my left hand when I did my homework. Mom compared me to my other siblings, because they used their right hand, which was the logical, the normal, the right thing to do. Using the left hand at that time was like having a disease. It was of the devil. Can you imagine such a comparison?

I am referring to this part of my childhood not because I have some kind of emotional trauma or anything like that today. No sir, not at all. I just want to describe some of the inconveniences I had to deal with being left-handed.

The first inconvenience as I mentioned before was my mother, she followed a pattern of reference from her own childhood, she simply repeated the same concept that most people of her time had, that left-handed people were no good! And since she wanted me to be useful, she forced me to use my right hand. Using a very effective audio-visual educational strategy, which is still used today by some parents, she would angrily yell at me, showing me a leash!

From unsplash

As an obedient child, and to avoid being punished, I started to write with my right hand, but I was always more agile with my left hand. So, when I went to school I wrote with my left hand to do everything faster and when I did my homework at home I used my right hand, so my mother wouldn't hit me. I did them slowly, but that way I avoided punishment. My mother was beautiful, she did everything out of love so that I would be useful in life... hahahaha.

We, left-handed people, are a minority in relation to the number of right-handed people in the world. This has brought us numerous disadvantages. All hand tools were created and designed with right-handed people in mind. From scissors, knives, and an endless number of objects. As left-handed people, we have had to adapt them to our left hand. It was slow and clumsy to manipulate the tools in manual work, but there was no other option.

Over time I acquired a little more agility with my right hand. For example, as an adult, I never had a problem driving a synchronous vehicle, with its shift control on the driver's right side. I use the mouse on my computer without any problem with my right hand. I use my forks correctly to eat, although I drink beverages using my left hand.

Even though I am a specialist in the area, I have never taken a complete laterality test, I do not think I am ambidextrous, because there are few activities that I do with my right hand. My left hand is still dominant.

In my childhood, I became very popular at school because of my creative side. One advantage of being left-handed is that you have drawing skills, because that aspect of creativity is developed in the right hemisphere of the brain. In school as a child, the teacher would tell me to draw pictures on the blackboard, pictures of maps, animals, or other objects. I became popular in drawing. At home, I was the one who did the drawings for my siblings. Now as an adult, I enjoy it, drawing is a pleasure, with oil paints, watercolors, crayons. With any material, I can be creative. Imagination is the limit!

From unsplash

Left-handed people are very ingenious and creative. We usually, if not always, look for creative ideas when faced with a problem. We are curious, persistent and most of the time we have goodwill, positive thoughts. We transform difficulties into opportunities to solve certain problems in a creative way, generating new solutions. We have more facility for divergent thinking, another advantage of being left-handed.

All that discrimination against left-handed people is, thank God, in the past. Today the daily life of a left-handed person goes by without any criticism or comparisons. Although the creation and design of hand tools made for right-handed people have not yet been overcome, the left-handed person adapts to them, without any discrimination.

My reader friend, are you right-handed, if you are right-handed I dare you, yes, after you have read my article, of course! I dare you to use your left hand for the rest of the day. I dare you to write, to use scissors, to change the position of your knife, fork, and spoon when eating, and all the things you are used to in your daily routine, oh, your computer mouse! do it today with your left hand. Besides exercising your brain, you will put yourself for a while in the hat of a left-handed person.

I look forward, my reader friend, to reading about your experience after the challenge.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.