I used to be left-handed.
I tell people this a lot and get tons and tons of weird looks.
They all look at me like I’m crazy and ask what in the world I could mean by that.
Until I was about three years old I wrote with my left hand. And then I switched to my right.
I wonder if it was because everyone else was right-handed that I switched, or if one day I just forgot which hand I’d usually written with.
But maybe because of that, I’m still quite good with my left hand today.
It could be that I practiced a lot in those three years of life with my left hand, or maybe because I’m stubborn and like to be different, but in gym class whenever we used to learn a new sport, I’d start it out left-handed.
It didn’t matter whether it was tennis, baseball, or badminton, but I’d always pick up the instrument with my left hand and work hard at teaching myself.
But it did not come easy.
Whenever I did sports left-handed, I always had a nagging suspicion that if I’d just started out with my right hand, I would have been much better at that point.
Because I’d switched from my left hand to my right hand at age three, I wasn’t all that good writing with my left hand. But it was my ultimate goal. I spent countless classes copying the alphabet over and over with my left hand to practice my handwriting. And then I started writing my notes with my left hand only.
Being ambidextrous taught me how to work hard. I had to spend an extra amount of time working on being able to play sports the right way with my left hand. Being able to write with both hands was one of the first goals I set for myself outside of school, one of the first personal goals I actually achieved.
It has given me a few advantages in my life. First of all, I can do most things with either hand. Whenever I injure one of my hands, I can still accomplish the day’s tasks with the other one.
While I was learning how to write well with my left hand, I noticed that I wasn’t entirely sure how to form all of the letters so I picked up a second pencil in my right hand. I would write the alphabet over and over again, two hands at once.
And now, whenever my friends miss a day of class, I can take two copies of notes at once, writing down the notes twice as fast as anyone else would be able to do.
I’ve also developed a talent where I can write backward with my left hand, sort of a mirror image to the way the original words and letters should have been. It is a cool trick, something that I can do that not many other people can.
It’s strange, having a unique skill like this, something that most people do not have. But it’s what makes me who I am.
