5 Reasons It Sucks To Be Left Handed

Last night my wife were out trying to find the last few Christmas presents and as we strolled through the local Guitar Center, I was reminded of the fact that there are times that it sucks to be left handed.
1. Good luck finding a left handed guitar.
My youngest son has been learning to play guitar and I have tried to pick up his guitar and play a little but it feels terrible to try playing right handed. While at Guitar Center, I was looking at the package deals to get a bass guitar and an amp – all of them were right handed guitars.
As we browsed through the selection of guitars and pointed out models we thought our son would love, I noticed that every single one of them was right handed. Now I was on a mission to find a left handed guitar. Just when I thought it was hopeless, I spotted three left handed guitars that looked like they were from 1980 tucked into the far corner of the store.
While I didn’t ask anyone at the store, I am sure that many of the guitars can be special ordered for a left handed player but what if I want to test it out before ordering? Some might say that you should learn to play guitar right handed to avoid this problem but I think that is ridiculous.
2. Pass the left handed scissors.
What? Oh, you only have “regular” scissors. Why do I need to be labeled as irregular just because I want to cut a damn piece of paper with my dominant hand?
Don’t even try to use a right handed pair of scissors with your left hand as the piece of paper will come out looking like it had a bad encounter with a paper shredder.
3. Sure, I’ll play in your softball league – I just need to go buy a new softball mitt.
As a left handed player that is in need of a new mitt, you might as well go buy some leather and stitch one yourself.
Have you been in a sporting goods store recently? You’ll be sure to find all of the latest models of mitts from all of the top manufacturers. Your mouth begins to water as you find the mitt you’ve been looking for but they only have it for a right handed player.
You’ll be lucky to find five mitts in the entire store that are meant to be used by a left handed person – four of which are guaranteed not to fit your hand.
4. Those small, crappy desks at school aren’t designed for you.
Do you remember the desks at school where you slide into the seat from the left and the top of the desk extends out from the right and to the front?
Those desks are very comfortable to sit and rest your arm while you take notes during class – as long as you’re writing with your right hand. Have you ever noticed how many left handed people write with their arm all curled up and twisted? It’s because of those damn desks that force lefties to twist and contort themselves to be able to write without their arm slipping off the desk.
Your school might have had a few of the desks that were actually designed for lefties, although chances are that they were locked away in a storage closet or were being used to hold the globe and other classroom decorations.
5. Every time you write something, you are guaranteed to smudge at least once.
Anyone that is left handed will know exactly what I am talking about.
When you’re left handed and writing on a piece of paper, no matter how diligent you are you will eventually rub the edge of your hand across the ink or pencil and end up smearing/smudging on the paper.
The worst is when you slide your hand across a spot of wet ink and it smears on the edge of your hand but you don’t realize it. As you continue to write across the paper and move your hand, you’re leaving small marks of ink all over the paper as it rubs off from your hand.
I love being a lefty but it really sucks sometimes.
These are just a few of the examples of why it can really suck to be a lefty but I could likely mention many more that right handed people likely never even think about.
Here is one that often goes overlooked – put your watch on your right wrist and then try to wind the watch or change the date without take it off. On most watches the little twisty knobs are on the right edge, which is perfect if you wear the watch on your left wrist and need to adjust the knob with your right hand.
In many cases, left handed people learn how to adapt to the situation because there isn’t a better option. Many lefties that I know, including myself, use the computer mouse with their right hand. Instead of searching for that left handed pair of scissors, most lefties learn how to cut things with their right hand.
To this day I still swing a baseball bat, hockey stick, and golf club with a traditional right handed stance although I throw with my left hand. While I don’t remember anyone teaching me to do it that way, I imagine that I learned to do those things right handed because that is how my friends were doing them – or in the case of hockey and golf because there was no left handed equipment.
While I understand that approximately 80-90% of the population is right handed according to certain studies, I think it really sucks that I cannot easily walk into a store and buy something like a baseball mitt or a guitar and take it home that day. The economy caters to right handed people.
Oh yeah…there is one more reason that it sucks to be left handed – some studies indicate that lefties die earlier than right handed people.